Article III Section 1 of the Wisconsin Constitution currently reads, “Every United States citizen age 18 or older who is a resident of an election district in this state is a qualified elector of that district.”
After Tuesday’s vote, the article will now read, “Only a United States citizen age 18 or older who is a resident of an election district in this state is a qualified elector of that district.”
Doesn’t this change the meaning of the statement so much that it’s no longer true that every citizen of age who is a resident is eligible to vote? Can this new language be interpreted by courts and lawmakers such that anyone can be disenfranchised if such malicious laws can be passed in the state?
It makes perfect sense to allow non-citizens to vote in state and local elections where the outcome of those elections will impact those people.
What this does is disenfranchise legal non-citizens, and prevent those people who live in those places from having a say in how those places are run.
Which is fine, if the state wants to do it that way. It just feels like kind of a dick move.