October 8, 2022
By Luca Cacciatore | Newsmax
The Delaware Supreme Court found both unrestricted mail-in voting and same-day voter
registration to be violations of the state constitution, a Friday decision revealed.
Only one day after hearing oral arguments, judges concluded in a three-page ruling that
legislation permitting the two practices would "impermissibly expand the categories of
absentee voters identified."
The decision comes one month after Nathan Cook, Delaware's vice chancellor of the
Court of Chancery, ruled that the law violated constitutional provisions that dictate the
circumstances in which a resident is permitted an absentee vote.
However, Cook permitted the same-day voter registration law from taking effect. With the
Supreme Court's latest decision, that law is now also struck down.
A high court previously ruled that mail-in voting was permissible during the COVID-19
pandemic, but only on the grounds of a public health emergency, the Center for Public
Integrity noted.
Roughly one year later, Democrats in the state legislature attempted to codify the rule.
That led to the Public Interest Legal Foundation filing a lawsuit on behalf of Republican
lawmakers soon after.
"These new laws ... impermissibly provide electors a new and unrestricted right to vote by
mail and to register to vote on the same day as the general election, and would, if
permitted to stay in place, apply to the General Election scheduled to take place on
November 8, 2022," the complaint read.
A spokesperson on behalf of Delaware Gov. John Carney, a Democrat, said he was
disappointed in the Supreme Court's ruling, which surprisingly sided with the Public
Interest Legal Foundation and state Republicans.
"The governor's position has been simple and consistent," they told Delaware News
Journal. "We should make it easier — not harder — for all eligible Delawareans to vote and
participate in our democratic process."