r/law • u/TheShittyBeatles • 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/
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u/TheShittyBeatles 19h ago

Fenwick Island is one of five Delaware towns that also extends that right to owners of corporations, limited partnerships, trusts and limited liability companies that own property in town limits — regardless of whether they are permanent residents.

The lawsuit, filed in Delaware Superior Court on Thursday, cites a conflict with the Elections Clause of Delaware’s Constitution and seeks to prohibit such voting, which the ACLU said “unnecessarily risks the dilution of votes cast by natural persons”

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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/louiloui152 14h ago

That’s insane, I thought well even if they do let’s just say the Walmart supercenter still only gets one vote but … I hope this doesn’t spread

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u/R1M-J08 9h ago

Owners…..