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Friday, February 22, 2013

ALEC-er Would Give Corps the Right to Vote



From Think Progress
This ALEC legislator was part of “once upon a time” ALEC Public Safety and Elections Task Force (Voter ID bill).  This must be a piece of ALEC “model legislation” they keep hidden in the ALEC vault.

A bill introduced by Montana state Rep. Steve Lavin would give corporations the right to vote in municipal elections:

    Provision for vote by corporate property owner. (1) Subject to subsection (2), if a firm, partnership, company, or corporation owns real property within the municipality, the president, vice president, secretary, or other designee of the entity is eligible to vote in a municipal election as provided in [section 1].

    (2) The individual who is designated to vote by the entity is subject to the provisions of [section 1] and shall also provide to the election administrator documentation of the entity’s registration with the secretary of state under 35-1-217 and proof of the individual’s designation to vote on behalf of the entity.

The idea that “corporations are people, my friend” as Mitt Romney put it, is sadly common among conservative lawmakers. Most significantly of all, the five conservative justices voted in Citizens United v. FEC to permit corporations to spend unlimited money to influence elections. Actually giving corporations the right to vote, however, is quite a step beyond what even this Supreme Court has embraced.

The bill does contain some limits on these new corporate voting rights. Most significantly, corporations would not be entitled to vote in “school elections,” and the bill only applies to municipal elections. So state and federal elections would remain beyond the reach of the new corporate voters.


“So state and federal elections would remain beyond the reach of the new corporate voters.”
For now.

This is what happens when you allow your state legislators to attend meetings of the right wing, ultraconservative, extremist American Legislative Exchange Council - to meet in secret with corporate lobbyists

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