The San Francisco Elections Commission has, for what is believed to be the first time in history, appointed someone who isn’t a U.S. citizen—who isn’t legally allowed to vote—to serve as an official.
The officer, Kelly Wong, was sworn in on Feb. 14, local news outlet KQED reported. It said that Ms. Wong, an immigrant rights advocate, is a native of Hong Kong who arrived in the United States in 2019 for graduate studies.
She was sworn in by Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin during a ceremony at San Francisco City Hall after winning unanimous support from the board.
“This appointment is a milestone for all immigrant and marginalized communities throughout SF,” Ms. Wong wrote in a LinkedIn post on Feb. 15. “Representation matters: thousands of immigrants living in the city hold stakes in politics and there’s no better way to have us be represented than to serve in leadership positions.
“I am deeply committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of immigration status, has a seat at the table in shaping the future of our city.”
The appointment of a noncitizen to city boards, commissions, and advisory bodies was made possible in 2020 when voters passed a proposal by lawmakers to remove the standing requirement that candidates seeking office hold U.S. citizenship.
At the Feb. 14 ceremony, Mr. Peskin applauded Ms. Wong’s activism. “I’m very impressed by her commitment to enfranchising people who rarely vote, to educating people about the voting process, and to bring in noncitizens and get them the tools they need as they become citizens,” he told KQED.
The former resident of Hong Kong, which now belongs to China and recently saw mass pro-democracy protests over the people’s lack of true electoral representation, said she hopes to improve immigrant and non-English voter engagement in her new home city of San Francisco, which has a ranked-choice voting system. She also told KQED that one of her priorities would be to use resources to improve translations of voter materials.
“I’ve seen how language and cultural barriers prevent immigrants with limited English proficiency from fully exercising their right to vote,” Ms. Wong said.
Ms. Wong will join six other members of the civilian-led commission, whose job is to oversee policy and operations for the city’s Department of Elections.
As all member roles are unpaid, Ms. Wong said she would also continue her work for the progressive advocacy group Chinese for Affirmative Action—a non-government organization founded in 1969 whose mission is to protect the “civil and political rights of Chinese Americans and to advance multiracial democracy in the United States,” according to the group’s website.
She has worked for the group since 2022.
Chinese for Affirmative Action in 2016 supported other progressive advocacy efforts to further liberalize voting access, lobbying the government to change the law to allow noncitizens to vote in school board elections if their children attend a school in the district. Their efforts succeeded after challenges in the state’s courts.
Ms. Wong thanked the city’s immigrant rights commissioner, Sarah Souza—who arrived in the United States as an illegal immigrant child and was the first such person in California appointed to the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee—for her successful campaign in 2020 to change the law and allow noncitizens to serve on local commissions and advisory boards.
“Without Sarah’s advocacy and perseverance, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to represent immigrant voices and contribute to shaping the future of our communities,” Ms. Wong wrote in her post.
“To all immigrants in SF: I hope my appointment to the Elections Commission serves as a beacon of hope, showing that change is possible and your voices matter in policymaking. If I can do it, you can too.”
Vincent Pan, co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, also congratulated Ms. Wong.
He told KQED, “I’m hoping there will be a day where it won’t be as newsworthy that you have someone who’s an immigrant and a noncitizen involved in helping make the city run better, especially in a city where such a large percentage of the community is immigrants.”
Once again the Democrats show their intent to DESTROY the U.S.A. as our founders intended and turn it into a Democrat Party Socialist Dictatorship.
AND once again, the left shows they care NOT ABOUT THE LAW or the constitution.
NO ONE NOT A CITIZEN should be able to do ANYTHING REGARDING voting. Period.
The mentally defective inmates have finally taken over the San Francisco asylum. Where is Nurse Ratched when you need her, to lobotomize the demented Democrat ones who fly over that West Coast American Cuckoo’s nest of a city, who every election come up with new ways to steal what used to be honest American elections. When illegal aliens are able to cancel out honest American votes, your town soon becomes an unworkable nothing burger of a city, where there are plenty of antlers found in the trees when it is revealed who really goosed the American moose.
Go down to the Illinois river to see what your country is about to look like,,,,now swarming with invaded Chinese flying fish who will actually jump en mass into your boat if the engine rpms are high enough to stimulate them. They have driven out the edible native game fish who were either eaten or overwhelmed when their food sources got eaten up by the Flying fish. This is what happens when hordes of uncontrolled unvetted animals invade your former peaceful rives and landscapes. The overpopulation is so bad that even Liberal Illinois will allow you to catch them without a fishing license. No fines or penalties. ,Same should apply to their illegal alien border jumpers, who are eating up our now disappearing social programs meant to feed American’s poor and hungry. Like the Chinese flying fish they should all be caught and hung out to dry.
The nuts have been running the asylum for a good 2+ deacades..
No.
The answer is just NO.
I would expect nothing less from Potty Francisco
W. T. F. ???
The Lib Progressive Woke Democrat Wonks have increasingly worked against the United States, it’s Citizens, and in its efforts to try and erode and diminish The Constitution, but they did it under the table, double dealing with sleight of hand and straight up lying to the taxpayers and legal voters to attempt to make their efforts look squeaky clean with an honest effort to try and curtail the “evil” attempts from the Right to try and stop them from trying to do “what’s best” for everyone, even if you don’t know how or why their ideas are good for the common citizen.
Becauses…it sure doesn’t look that way…
Now they’re either afraid they’re running out of time, or they’re so confident in their ability to intimidate and influence the citizenry to believe whatever BS they’re dishing out, and go to with it or else be threatened with defamation or litigation that will ruin your life and/or business if you don’t unquestionably fall in line to their now blatant plans to control what’s left of Our Country under iron fisted one party rule.
We are at a point of no return, and we must fight these next several months to maintain a vigilant defense against any and all Leftist Woke Wonk attempts to control the language and the process of the next election, or there will be no need to try again because they will have won, and there will be nothing else Our Party can do but watch in horror as the Country we love becomes lost in the History of Failed Experiments.
The time for playing nice is long over.
Where are we headed in this country ? And do we even HAVE a country anymore ?
NOW YOU KNOW WHY They have willfully imported 10+ MILLION Illegals over the past 3 years.. TO SWELL THe voter rolls, so they will never lose another election.
” “Without Sarah’s advocacy and perseverance, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to represent immigrant voices and contribute to shaping the future of our communities,” Ms. Wong wrote in her post. ”
Uh, Who’s communities, again?
Doing the jobs Americans don’t want?
AND WHY SHOULD illegal immigrants have a voice in OUR GOVT anyway?!?!