NOTICE OF REFERENDUM ELECTION
November 5, 2024
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that at an election to be held in the several towns, villages, city, wards, and election districts of the County of Door, State of Wisconsin, on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, the following questions will be submitted to a vote of the people pursuant to law:
2023 Senate Resolution 71
Enrolled Joint Resolution
To renumber and amend section 1 of article III; and to create section 1 (1) of article III of the constitution; relating to: eligibility to vote in Wisconsin (second consideration).
Whereas, the 2021 legislature in regular session considered a proposed amendment to the constitution in 2021 Senate Joint Resolution 32, which became 2021 Enrolled Joint Resolution 13, and agreed to it by a majority of the members elected to each of the two houses, which proposed amendment reads as follows:
Section 1. Section 1 of article III of the constitution is renumbered section 1 (2) of article III and amended to read:
[Article III] Section 1 (2) Every 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 who may vote in an election for national, state, or local office or at a statewide or local referendum.
Section 2. Section 1 (1) of article III of the constitution is created to read:
[Article III] Section 1 (1) In this section:
- “Local office” means any elective office other than a state or national office.
- “National office” means the offices of president and vice president of the United States, U.S. senator, and representative in congress.
- “Referendum” means an election at which an advisory, validating, or ratifying question is submitted to the electorate.
- “State office” means the offices of governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state treasurer, attorney general, state superintendent of public instruction, justice of the supreme court, court of appeals judge, circuit court judge, state senator, state representative to the assembly, and district attorney.
Section 3. Numbering of new provision. If another constitutional amendment ratified by the people creates the number of any provision created in this joint resolution, the chief of the legislative reference bureau shall determine the sequencing and the numbering of the provisions whose numbers conflict.
Now, therefore, be it resolved by the senate, the assembly concurring, That the foregoing proposed amendment to the constitution is agreed to by the 2023 legislature; and, be it further
Resolved, That the foregoing proposed amendment to the constitution be submitted to a vote of the people at the election to be held on the first Tuesday of November, 2024; and, be it further
Resolved, That the question concerning ratification of the foregoing proposed amendment to the constitution be stated on the ballot as follows:
“Eligibility to vote. Shall section 1 of article III of the constitution, which deals with suffrage, be amended to provide that only a United States citizen age 18 or older who resides in an election district may vote in an election for national, state, or local office or at a statewide or local referendum?”
EXPLANATORY STATEMENT AS TO THE QUESTION:
The Wisconsin Constitution provides that “[e]very 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.” Wis. Const. art. III, § 1. That language is repeated in Wisconsin statute.
Wis. Stat. § 6.02(1).
The referendum question would modify the language in Wis. Const. art. III, § 1
to provide that “only” a U.S. citizen 18 or older who resides in an election district may
vote, and it would specify that only such individuals may vote in an election for
“a national, state, or local office or at a statewide or local referendum.” It also would
add definitions of what “local office, “national office,” “referendum,” and “state office”
mean. 2023 Wis. S.J. Res. 71.
A “yes” vote would vote to modify existing article III, section 1 of the Wisconsin
Constitution to provide that “only” a U.S. citizen 18 or older who resides in an election
district can vote “in a national, state, or local office or at a statewide or local
referendum.”
A “no” vote would vote not to change Wis. Const. art. III, § 1 of the Wisconsin
Constitution.
Done in the City of Sturgeon Bay on this 1st day of November, 2024.
Jill M. Lau, Door County Clerk