Delaware Supreme Court Restores Early Voting, Permanent Absentee Voting

The option to vote in-person 10 days ahead of Election Day and to vote by absentee ballot indefinitely will remain available to voters in Delaware this year.

The dispute centers around a pair of election laws. One of the challenged laws, enacted in 2019, allows for at least 10 days of early in-person voting prior to Election Day and went into effect in 2022.

The other law, enacted in 2010, grants certain qualified voters a “permanent absentee” status, under which they automatically receive an absentee ballot without having to apply for one each election cycle.

Delaware Republican Party chairwoman and former state attorney general Jane Brady, together with the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), sued the state in 2022, claiming that the laws violate the Delaware Constitution.

In their unanimous June 28 opinion, the five-justice panel of the Delaware Supreme Court sided with the state, ruling that neither Ms. Brady nor PILF had standing to sue.

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According to the justices, the plaintiffs failed to show how the votes of those who vote early or have permanent absentee voting status will harm them differently than other voters across Delaware.

“[The allegations’] source is the plaintiff’s desire that other voters comply with our voting laws as plaintiffs understand them,” Justice Gary Traynor wrote for the panel. “That is a paradigmatic generalized grievance and is insufficient to support a plaintiff’s standing.”

The justices did not rule on the merits of the challenged laws.

The state constitution “mandates one Election Day, not 10 separate days,” the PILF, a nonpartisan public interest law firm, had argued.

In Delaware, there are specific reasons a voter may vote absentee, including going on vacation, work obligations, disability, illness, and serving in the military. By putting voters on a permanent mail ballot voting list, according PILF, the 2022 law disregards the constitutional requirement to consider one’s eligibility to vote by mail in each subsequent election.

“Delaware’s law granting permanent absentee voting privileges conflicts directly with the constitution that requires consideration of eligibility to vote absentee at each election,” the organization stated.

In late February, the Delaware Superior Court agreed with those arguments and struck down both laws as unconstitutional. The state, represented by Attorney General Kathy Jennings, appealed to the Delaware Supreme Court.

Ms. Jennings celebrated the court victory over what she called “partisan attempts to suppress votes.”

“I’m grateful to the Court for its ruling and for agreeing to hear this case on an expedited basis so that Delawareans know their rights going into the September and November elections,” she said in a statement.

Democrat lawmakers also applauded the decision.

“We are pleased the Delaware Supreme Court today removed this immediate roadblock to ensure this fall’s elections will continue to provide secure voting options to Delawareans,” the state Senate Democrat leadership said in a joint statement.

In a statement to The Epoch Times, PILF President J. Christian Adams highlighted that the ruling was based on a lack of standing.

“These cases are important to ensure elections follow the law,” he said. “The court already ruled that same-day registration and universal vote by mail in Delaware did not follow the law.”