A state court blocked voting by mail in Delaware on Sept. 14 after ruling that the state’s mail-in voting practices violate the Delaware Constitution.
Barring further judicial or legislative action, the ruling means mail-in voting will not be available in the upcoming general elections in Delaware on Nov. 8.
Republicans were critical of mail-in voting measures enacted at the height of the pandemic and accused election officials across the country of ignoring the U.S. Constitution and state constitutions by allowing it and promoting it heavily to the public. They claim this departure from the usual election procedures allowed Democrats to cheat.
The Democratic-controlled Delaware General Assembly hurriedly passed the voting-by-mail law in June after failing to secure enough Republican support to amend the state constitution to enshrine the policy. Lawmakers previously approved a separate voting-by-mail law during the pandemic in 2020, invoking emergency powers that allowed the statute to escape the usual constitutional scrutiny.
But lawmakers didn’t reference any emergency authority when passing the new law, which allowed the state judge to rule it was unconstitutional.
Former U.S. Department of Justice civil rights attorney J. Christian Adams, whose organization launched the legal challenge, hailed the court’s decision.
‘Election Officials Must Follow the Law’
“This ruling upheld the rule of law in Delaware when not long-ago election officials across the country were ignoring the law,” Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), said in a statement obtained by The Epoch Times.
“This law violated the election protections in Delaware’s Constitution. Election officials must follow the law. When laws are followed, even losers of elections can agree with the outcomes. Consent of the governed increases when the election rules are followed.”
PILF describes itself as “the nation’s only public interest law firm dedicated wholly to election integrity.” The nonprofit organization “exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity, and fight against lawlessness in American elections.”
Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, a Democrat whose office defended the 2022 law in court, didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.
