this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2024
307 points (96.1% liked)

No Stupid Questions

35709 readers
2337 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

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?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (3 children)

No. These laws are meant to deny noncitizens from voting because they have been legally allowed to vote in local elections in California, DC, Maryland, New York, and Vermont.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

If the new wording was appended to the statement instead of replacing it, I would agree with you.

But the word "every" is a guaranteed inclusion (while not explicitly excluding anyone), while "only" is a guaranteed exclusion (while not explicitly including anyone).


For a dumb example, my chili recipe says "every type of bean may be used", I can put black beans and pinto beans in it, and no one can tell me otherwise. But if I change it to "only beans may be used", that is more open to further restrictions by later stipulations.

"Do not use pinto beans" is in direct contradiction with "every type of bean may be used".

"Do not use pinto beans" is actually not a contradiction with "only beans may be used".


What I'm seeing with the new language is that a new law saying something like "Students who continue to live with their parents are not permitted to participate in elections" is actually permissible and not in contradiction with the statement "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.”

At least according to the constitution. Prior to Nov 5, it would be unconstitutional in WI to pass such a law, that's no longer the case.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

I see what you're saying but it is hard to worry about a hypothetical misinterpretation. If you see this happening then you'll have to vote but until then there's nothing there.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 13 hours ago

It's easy to worry about it, when the change wasn't even necessary and has no effect if we're to believe it was written in good faith.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Closing loopholes is worthwhile, even if they're not being abused yet. You say "if you see this happening, then you'll have to vote", but that thing that may happen is people being denied the right to vote. So if this starts to happen, it may be impossible to undo with voting.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago

Case in point, this amendment pretended to close a loophole which didn't even exist. Wisconsin law already prohibited non citizens from voting. It does not pass the smell test, being as haphazardly written as it is now.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 21 hours ago

To be clear, I know what we're told the amendment is meant to do. I'm concerned about an unwanted gap in the choice of language it created.