A Chinese immigrant who emigrated from Hong Kong to the United States in 2019 — and who cannot legally vote — was sworn in Wednesday as the newest board member of San Francisco's Elections Commission.
Kelly Wong, who will be the seventh member on the city's board to oversee election policies for San Franciso's Department of Elections, posted to her LinkedIn Friday that she hopes that "everyone, regardless of immigration status, has a seat at the table in shaping the future of" the City by the Bay.
Wong's appointment, according to KQED, stems from a 2020 voter-approved measure that removes citizenship requirements for serving on San Francisco boards, commissions, and advisory bodies.
The way it works in San Francisco is that each of the commission's seven members is appointed by a different city official, such as the mayor, city attorney or district attorney. Wong was voted in unanimously via the city's Board of Supervisors.
Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin said of Wong, "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."
However, not all are impressed with Wong's appointment. After the story of a noncitizen who cannot legally vote being appointed to a city's election commission breached social media, a firestorm was set off, racking up almost 4,000 comments on one post.
Notably, San Francisco is host to the oldest Chinatown in North America. Wong maintains that she will seek to increase engagement among the city's non-English speaking communities as well as its immigrants.
"Even though I'm fluent in English," Wong told KQED, "I still encounter challenges in navigating a new system, let alone participating in political conversation and activities."
Since 2022, Wong reportedly has worked as an advocate at Chinese for Affirmative Action, a San Francisco-based civil rights group focusing on the city's Chinese community. Wong highlights in her LinkedIn bio her work on recognizing "microaggressions" against Chinese under her paper, "Exploring Racial Microaggressions Toward Chinese Immigrant Women in Greater Boston During Covid."