🎧 Listen!

Today’s Links

Articles:

Towns Square Live – Delaware Judge Halts Mail-In Voting
Democracy Docket – Delaware Judge Strikes Down No-Excuse Mail-in Voting, Upholds Same-Day Registration
Associated Press –  Judge says Delaware vote-by-mail law is unconstitutional

Groups Taking Action:   Delaware Voting Rights Coalition, League of Women Voters Delaware

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

We reported earlier this summer on the passage of a no-excuse mail-in voting law in Delaware.  September 14th, a Delaware state court judge struck down the law as contrary to the state constitution.

Delaware had passed SB 320 in June, which would allow voters to vote by mail without having to give an excuse.   But the Delaware constitution currently allows for the use of an absentee only when the voter is outside the state, in the armed forces, unable to vote due to job requirements, sick or disabled, on vacation, unable for religious reasons ,or in government service outside the country.

Town Square Live and Democracy Docket report that Republican members of the legislature sued, and Chancery Court Vice Chancellor Nathan Cook ruled that despite Delaware’s tradition of a robust voter participation, the state constitution left him no choice but to issue an injunction on the law.  

Vice Chancellor Cook also noted in his ruling that “it bears repeating that the express purpose of election laws in this state is to provide for ‘free and equal’ elections where Delawareans have an ‘unfettered’ right to vote—one of ‘the most fundamental of our rights.’”   He went on to suggest that the Delaware Supreme Court may want to reconsider past decisions on mail-in voting.

Past attempts at bills changing the state constitution to allow no-excuse mail-in voting have failed.   To read more about the decision and groups taking action, see links at AmericanDemocracy Minute.org.   

Granny D said, “Democracy is not something we HAVE, it’s something we DO!”  For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl