Yet another reason to vote in the November election! The Wisconsin ballot includes a proposed state constitutional amendment that could limit your right to vote. The state constitution currently provides that “Every United States citizen age 18 or older...may vote….” The proposed amendment would delete “Every” and substitute “Only a”. While this might not seem like a big change, the amendment provides a gateway to restricting voting rights.

How so? It’s not a stretch to imagine new requirements to prove citizenship to vote in Wisconsin. Yet, most voters don’t carry that documentation with them; it’s often in a safe deposit box or other secure location—or a voter may temporarily be abroad when casting a ballot! There are already many checks and balances to make sure only citizens vote, and Wisconsin’s constitution protects voting rights without the need for this restrictive amendment.

We also have questions about another aspect of the proposed rewording: in the existing text, the right to vote extends to "Every United States citizen age 18 or older who is a resident of an election district...". The revised text on the ballot reads: "Only a United States citizen age 18 or older who resides in an election district...". We have concerns that this language could be used to disenfranchise UOCAVA voters like ourselves. 

For these reasons, we strongly urge our members to vote “NO” on the proposed constitutional amendment on Wisconsin’s November ballot, and to protect the right of all eligible voters to cast their vote in Wisconsin’s elections.

Learn more here: https://my.lwv.org/wisconsin/november-2024-constitutional-amendment and here: https://wisconsinwatch.org/2024/05/republican-election-wisconsin-noncitizen-voting-democrat/