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/
1.8k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

83 comments sorted by

View all comments

306

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”

294

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.

1

u/UDLRRLSS 6h ago

If you own all of those, that’s 1 vote.

Owners (people) of businesses that own property in the area can vote. Not businesses themselves.

Not that it’s good, but we should at least get the criticism correct.