DOVER, Del. (AP) - Delaware’s Supreme Court ruled Friday that new state laws allowing universal voting by mail and Election Day registration are unconstitutional,
In a three-page order, the court said the vote-by-mail statute impermissibly expands the categories of absentee voters identified in Delaware's constitution. The justices said the same-day registration law also conflicts with the registration periods spelled out in the constitution.
The order came one day after the justices heard arguments in the case on Thursday.
A Court of Chancery judge last month upheld the same-day registration law but said the vote-by-mail law, the result of legislation Democrats rammed through the General Assembly in less than three weeks, violates restrictions on absentee voting in Delaware’s constitution.
Democratic Attorney General Kathleen Jennings appealed the ruling striking down the vote-by-mail law. Republican attorneys representing voters, a state House candidate and a Department of Elections employee appealed Cook’s decision upholding same-day registration.
The Supreme Court upheld Vice Chancellor Nathan Cook's ruling on the vote-by-mail law but said his decision allowing same-day registration should be reversed.
Attorneys representing state elections officials argued that the General Assembly has broad powers to enact voting laws, and that opponents had no standing to challenge the laws.
Attorneys challenging the laws contend that members of the General Assembly circumvented constitutional restrictions on their powers by trying to pass new laws instead of amending the constitution to allow voting by mail and same-day registration.
