DOVER, Delaware (LifeSiteNews) – Delaware’s highest court struck down universal mail-in balloting, ruling that its implementation violated the state constitution.
The Supreme Court of the State of Delaware ruled on October 7 that a lower court’s ruling striking down the state statute should be upheld.
It also struck down a same-day voter registration law. The state’s highest court announced it would provide further details on its decision at a later date, but expedited the decision because election officials planned to mail ballots starting today.
A September 14 ruling struck down the universal mail-in balloting legislation but allowed same-day voter registration to continue. The state’s constitution provides specific examples of when absentee voting is allowed, including when someone is a public service worker, such as a police officer or in the military, or when someone has a physical disability.
Election integrity group Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), which challenged the laws, praised the ruling in a statement.
“This is a win for the rule of law in Delaware’s Elections,” PILF President J. Christian Adams stated in a news release. “This law violated the plain text of the Delaware Constitution that provides specific reasons people are allowed to cast absentee ballots and when voter registration can take place. If Delaware lawmakers want to have mail-in voting, they need to pass a constitutional amendment.”
PILF has raised concerns about mail ballots and their effect on the integrity of elections. Nearly 15 million mail ballots remained unaccounted for almost a year after the 2020 presidential election, the group concluded.
“Based on data from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, an analysis by the Public Interest Legal Foundation shows almost 15 million mail ballots effectively disappeared after election officials gave them to the U.S. Postal Service to deliver to voters,” election integrity experts Hans von Spakovsky and J. Christian Adams wrote in a September 16 article for the Washington Examiner.
“Some ballots were lost. Some may have ended up on the floors of apartment complexes, never to be claimed. Some went to addresses where the registrant no longer lives,” the pair wrote. “Some may have gone to vacant lots and businesses. Some, having never been requested by the voter, were never returned. Others were rejected by election officials when they were returned.”
The commentary came from an August 2021 report from PILF that looked at mail-in ballots sent to voters in 42 states.