Boulder’s corporate personhood measure (2H)

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According to unofficial election results, the city of Boulder’s question on corporate personhood passed by a significant margin.

Results show that 73.72 percent of the votes counted were in favor of ballot measure 2H, while 26.28 percent were cast against the measure.

“By passing 2H, the people of Boulder have sent a strong and clear message to our state and federal representatives to take the lead in passing a Constitutional amendment that would abolish corporate personhood and end the Supreme Court’s equation of money with speech,” 2H backer Carolyn Bninski told Boulder Weekly. “We need to reclaim our democracy, take money out of politics, end corporate domination of every facet of our lives, and return the power to make vital social, economic and environmental decisions to real, live, breathing persons. Boulder’s vote is an important step in making that happen.” 

Measure 2H is a call for reclaiming democracy from the corrupting effects of corporate control. It’s a show of support for the Move to Amend initiative, which wants to change the U.S. Constitution so that it overrides the Supreme Courts Citizens United decision that essentially granted personhood to corporations. The January 2010 ruling, which said that the First Amendment prohibits limits on corporate funding of political broadcasts in candidate elections, was criticized for equating money with free speech and giving companies carte blanche to outspend the competition on ads for their favored candidates. Opponents said that the city council should be focusing instead on local matters in its own jurisdiction, and that stripping corporations of rights would hurt the economy.