Delaware can’t use mail-in ballots in November election, judge rules

by WorldTribune Staff, September 15, 2022

As Democrat-led legislatures throughout the U.S. ram through bills to codify massive distribution of mail-in ballots for this year’s midterms, a judge in Delaware on Wednesday ruled vote-by-mail violates the state’s constitution and cannot be used in the November election.

“Our Supreme Court and this court have consistently stated that those circumstances are exhaustive,” Vice Chancellor Nathan Cook wrote. “Therefore, as a trial judge, I am compelled by precedent to conclude that the vote-by-mail statute’s attempt to expand absentee voting … must be rejected.”

In June, Delaware’s Democrat-dominated legislature passed vote-by-mail legislation with zero Republican support.

Judge Cook noted that the law, the result of legislation that Democrats rammed through the General Assembly in less than three weeks in June, violates a provision in Delaware’s constitution that spells out the circumstances under which a person is allowed to cast an absentee ballot.

Julianne Murray, an attorney for plaintiffs challenging the vote-by-mail statute, who is also the Republican nominee for attorney general in November, said the judge had “started on the Constitutional Convention of 1897 and worked his way through,” said Murray, .

Jane Brady, a retired judge and former Delaware attorney general who also represented plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said mail-in voting “does not comport with the constitution.”

“I believe that the legislature has known from day one that they needed a constitutional amendment to do this,” Brady added, noting that lawmakers acknowledged during debate on the legislation that it could likely face a court challenge.

Last month, the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court upheld the state’s mail-in ballot law. In a 5-2 decision released, the justices rejected the GOP argument that the legislature did not have the power under the state constitution to allow Pennsylvanians to vote by mail without an excuse.


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