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Corporations can vote in some Delaware elections, judge says

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Re: Corporations can vote in some Delaware elections, judge says

#191

Post by mrguyorama »

pseudalopex wrote: post #143
booleanbetrayal wrote: post #142

I don't understand how this thread went from something like #10 on the main page down to #186 in a matter of an hour, despite being more active than most of the threads it is competing with. Can someone more familiar with HN rankings explain this one to me?

Submissions with too many comments for their votes receive a penalty. This is to stop flame wars.

This system was designed decades ago "To stop flamewars" and not been changed or fixed or improved in any way despite a drastically changing internet and world.

The purpose of a system is what it does, especially when chances to change or improve that system are ignored.

Similarly, HN is for "interesting discussion" which is why "politics is banned" even though it is explicitly not because the one time we tried to literally ban politics it was self evident how stupid, unworkable, and self defeating of a policy it is, and it lead to zero "interesting discussion", but whatever hype fad is popular right now fills the entire board to capacity at all times, with nothing more than the standard talking points either way, and somehow the 37th post about "AI slop but by a different Substack account nobody has heard of before" is interesting discussion.

"Too many comments for their votes", which is not made transparent to us because god forbid we understand why things happen in our community.

Re: Corporations can vote in some Delaware elections, judge says

#192

Post by SoftTalker »

floatrock wrote: post #190
SoftTalker wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Land is bought and sold in government-regulated parcels. You can't just split up an acre of land into square foot plots and sell them.

Lets be armchair evil for a sec... What is the smallest subplot you can split a parcel into? And are we talking literally land, or would condo ownership suffice? (After all, you typically stack a few condos on top of one parcel of land). The smallest condo is probably dictated by some pesky human habitability rules, but what class of property has the fewest minimum-square-footage zoning rules? Retail probably has egr…

In most areas, especially any that are at all developed, land parcels and minimum lot sizes are under the control of a county or city commission, council, board, etc. Subdividing a property is as expensive and time consuming as you might imagine dealing with the government, you'll probably need a lawyer to do it properly, have to appear before at at least one if not several public meetings or hearings, etc. And they will almost certainly deny any petition along the lines of the examples you offered.

Where I am, things like dividing a 5 acre rural property so that a mother-in-law can live in a cottage near her family are routinely denied.

Re: Corporations can vote in some Delaware elections, judge says

#193

Post by cucumber3732842 »

rayiner wrote: post #75
klaff wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this rich person also voting in the place where they actually live? I'm not against a rich person voting, I just don't want them to get more than one vote. I haven't read the opinion to see if that's addressed.

The town charter allows double voting in municipal elections because it allows non-residents to vote.

Having grown up in a tourism/2nd home town I think this is probably a good thing. Keeps the place from being totally captured by local business interests.

But it would likely lead to other problems because the owner demographics are generally out of touch.

Re: Corporations can vote in some Delaware elections, judge says

#194

Post by akramachamarei »

Henchman21 wrote: post #134
black6 wrote: post #17

If I own property in multiple municipalities/states, then I should be able to vote in all of them on local issues.

Nice assertion. No. You should be able to vote where you live. Full stop. Nothing else. You don't get more than one vote .

What about the notion of No Taxation without Representation? With that in mind, shouldn't you get to vote wherever you are (substantially) taxed?

Re: Corporations can vote in some Delaware elections, judge says

#196

Post by advisedwang »

cwmma wrote: post #12

It's specifically about corporations that own property in a specific town voting. So no you can't just spin up a bunch of LLCs to rig an election, this is about the rights of absentee landlords.

What right?

There is no right for non-residents of a city to vote in that city elections just because they own property there. Owning that property via a LLC shouldn't change that.

Re: Corporations can vote in some Delaware elections, judge says

#197

Post by overfeed »

cwmma wrote: post #12

It's specifically about corporations that own property in a specific town voting. So no you can't just spin up a bunch of LLCs to rig an election, this is about the rights of absentee landlords.

Why can't corporations be toen councilors or mayors in those same towns? A privilege availed to other voters there.

I'm being sarcastic because I don't like it. Corporations are a simulacrum of people, and at best, their personhhood a useful legal fiction under very limited number of scenarios.

Re: Corporations can vote in some Delaware elections, judge says

#198

Post by pixl97 »

cucumber3732842 wrote: post #193
rayiner wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The town charter allows double voting in municipal elections because it allows non-residents to vote.

Having grown up in a tourism/2nd home town I think this is probably a good thing. Keeps the place from being totally captured by local business interests. But it would likely lead to other problems because the owner demographics are generally out of touch.

> Keeps the place from being totally captured by local business interests.

I'm pretty sure this is a fundimental design of the US system. There are things your city is allowed to do by state constitution. Things your county is allowed to do. And things only the state is allowed to do.

This is expressly to enable the people that live in that place the right to self governance.

Re: Corporations can vote in some Delaware elections, judge says

#199

Post by xboxnolifes »

kulahan wrote: post #164
roxolotl wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That does not make it not frightening nor not the stuff of science fiction. We know how awful corporate towns are that’s partly why cyberpunk is what it is.

There’s really nothing inherently profane about the concept, it’s just often abused. I’d love to see a few working examples out in the real world, personally.

> There’s really nothing inherently profane about the concept, it’s just often abused.

The same thing can be said about any autocratic government, but the practical and documented historical issues are why they are not liked. Just as dictatorship works well when you have a good ruler who cares about the people, the issue isn't if you get a bad ruler, but when.

Re: Corporations can vote in some Delaware elections, judge says

#200

Post by singleshot_ »

floatrock wrote: post #190
SoftTalker wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Land is bought and sold in government-regulated parcels. You can't just split up an acre of land into square foot plots and sell them.

Lets be armchair evil for a sec... What is the smallest subplot you can split a parcel into? And are we talking literally land, or would condo ownership suffice? (After all, you typically stack a few condos on top of one parcel of land). The smallest condo is probably dictated by some pesky human habitability rules, but what class of property has the fewest minimum-square-footage zoning rules? Retail probably has egr…

> What is the smallest subplot you can split a parcel into?

An acre, here. See your local zoning code or land statutes for minimum lot sizes. Consult agreements that run with the land for additional restrictions.

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