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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