Side stand switch does nothing

[His Dudeness]

So if I understand correctly you put the red lead of the meter to battery+ and black lead to both sides of the switch connector? On one side of the connector the meter showed 12V all the time and on the other side it showed 0V and then 12V when the stand was up. Is that right? That seems like the switch is working correctly. The switch could be working but if the wires are joined together somewhere before the switch it doesn't matter if the switch is open or closed because the wires are already joined together.

You're not feeding power to the switch with the meter.  The switch doesn't need power. It's just joining two sides of the same wire together or breaking it. What you're doing with the meter is measuring the difference in Voltage between the two points. The two points you picked where battery + and the switch. The switch is a connection battery negative when it's closed so that's why you see 12V on the meter when it's closed and the stand is up. You're basically measuring voltage between battery positive and negative.

I think you're thinking about the two wires as if the switch is a load like a light bulb, where one wire is positive and the other is negative. It's not a load, it's not doing any work, it's just a switch. The two wires going to it are basically the same wire in a loop with a switch in the loop. I think the switch is working but the wires are joined together somewhere