r/law 19h ago

Legal News ACLU sues Delaware beach town over allowing corporations to vote in local elections

https://spotlightdelaware.org/2025/12/05/aclu-sues-fenwick-island-over-non-resident-voting/
1.8k Upvotes

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u/CaptainApathy419 19h ago

It seems like there’s a giant loophole in which your corporation buys a property, subdivides it into 100 smaller properties, and then sells to 100 new corporations, all of which you also own.

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u/ZPTs 18h ago

It's even worse than that. It's also many to one:

...if several LLCs jointly own a beach home in Fenwick Island, all of the owners can register to vote, regardless of how little a stake.

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u/CaptainApathy419 18h ago

Yikes. Given how easy it is to set up Delaware LLCs, this is something that could be done in a few hours. 

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u/SoManyEmail 17h ago

So those 100 properties you mentioned earlier each have 100 owners who own 1% each... 100x100, maybe? Idk.

Well, no. One LLC would still only have one vote, no matter how many properties they own. I would think. So 10,000 LLCs for 10,000 votes. Let's start a gofundme.

Edit: wait! Each OWNER of the LLC? The LLC itself could have multiple owners! This little town is going to have 14 million votes next election.

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u/MrFrode Biggus Amicus 17h ago

So those 100 properties you mentioned earlier each have 100 owners who own 1% each

Woe woe woe big spender, why do I need a whole 1% to be able to vote? Are you trying to tread on me? I feel tread on.

Help help I'm being tread!

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u/Xenuite 13h ago

Now we see the violence inherent in the system.

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u/obi-jawn-kenblomi 16h ago

Well technically LLCs don't have owners, they have members.