There are some small towns in Delaware that allow non-human “persons” such as trusts and corporations to vote in local elections. This raises concerns because corporations out-number humans in Delaware and the humans probably don’t want the likes of, say, Chase Bank voting. (Not to say the likes of Chase Bank do not have an influence over elections and public policy everywhere in the United States.)

What I suspect is actually going on here is that these are tiny beach towns where most of the residential property is vacation rentals. The property owners might live in a nearby municipality a bit further inland where the schools and stores are, or they might live in the nearest sizable city where the professional jobs are. They are the ones who have skin in the game as far as what goes on in the town as opposed to the short-term renters. So if I am right it makes a certain amount of practical sense. The only thing that doesn’t make sense to me is that if some people are full-time residents AND own property under some form of corporation or trust, they would actually have more than one vote. A full-time resident who is not a property owner by contrast would have only one vote. Property rights have not been a determinant of the right to vote in the United States traditionally since at least the civil rights era.

This does raise the eventual issue of corporate personhood more broadly though. If AIs eventually gain the ability to advocate for their own interests, they will likely try to incorporate to gain some or all of the rights of persons. This would immediately include access to courts and, under current law, the right to unfettered political speech and campaign contributions. You would have the potential complication of AIs eventually outnumbering human beings, and you would have the potential of some AIs or groups or AIs being created and controlled by human beings or by other corporations for the sole purpose of increasing political power.

Interestingly, Delaware does have a legal definition of a “natural person”. If we were to add this to the U.S. Constitution, we could then specify which rights apply to natural persons (let’s say, the right to free speech) vs. all persons (access to the courts, etc.). Of course, as much as we celebrate the Bill of Rights it is behind modern best practice in many other countries, the UN Charter, and even individual U.S. state constitutions. There is a process for amending the U.S. Constitution (actually at least two, by Congress and through a separate Constitutional Convention convened by the states). Maybe it is time.