SF Standard discusses immigrant voting rights, school board recall election

Friday, January 7, 2022
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- ABC7 is partnering with the brand new San Francisco Standard to showcase some of their deep and insightful reporting on the city.

Our news organizations share the mission of Building A Better Bay Area and one important piece of that is to tell the stories, the successes and struggles, of all our diverse communities.
[Ads /]
In this edition, we are focusing on the San Francisco school board recall election and the Chinese-American community.

RELATED: SF Standard details elder abuse lawsuit filed by residents of SF's Granada Hotel

SF Standard reporter Han Li, who covers hyper-local issues important to the Asian American community, spoke on how a special ordinance impacts school board elections.

Li says there is a lot of interest in it.



"The San Francisco school board has been in a lot of controversies attracting national spotlight. There are a lot of growing interests from the parents here," Li said. "They are very eager in participating in the school board election."
[Ads /]
RELATED: San Francisco Standard reporter discusses impact of SFUSD budget vote

He also says immigrants who aren't U.S. citizens are able to vote.

"San Francisco is a really diverse city with really progressive politics. There was a movement for over a decade for non-citizen voting rights."

Li says back in 2016, voters passed a charter movement allowing non-citizen parents to vote in local school board elections.

"We're talking about people with a green card, permanent residents, people with visas, people seeking asylums, and also refugees and undocumented immigrants."

RELATED: SF Standard reporter discusses work in Chinese community, future of Chinatown

Watch the video in the player above for the full interview

Copyright © 2026 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.