The Supreme Court of ‘Amtrak-Joe’s’ Delaware, home of President Joe Biden, ruled on Friday that universal mail-in-voting and same-day registration, the very mechanisms that paved his way to the White House, are a violation of the state’s constitution.
In a shock ruling, the court found that the two policies directly contradict the registration and absentee voter sections of the Delaware constitution. In the ruling, the court upheld the decision of the state vice-chancellor, who had rejected the vote-by-mail law, but at the time upheld the same-day registration according to Fox News.
“Our Supreme Court and this court have consistently stated that those circumstances are exhaustive,” Vice Chancellor Nathan Cook, wrote according to The Post Millennial.
“Therefore, as a trial judge, I am compelled by precedent to conclude that the vote-by-mail statute’s attempt to expand absentee voting … must be rejected.”
The Delaware constitution allows for absentee voting, but only under specific circumstances. For example, voters unable to physically reach the polls due to public service, occupation or disability are permitted to use mail-in-voting according to the outlet.
Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, a Democrat, argued universal mail-in-voting and absentee voting are not the same. Fox News also reported that the constitution states clearly that voter registration in Delaware cannot end less than ten days prior to an election.
In its ruling the court found that the universal mail-in-voting statue, “impermissibly expands the categories of absentee voters,” and that the same-day registration statute contradicts the limits explicitly formulated in the constitution.
“A statute cannot introduce into the general election votes that are prohibited under the Delaware constitution,” the state GOP chair and former attorney general Jane Brady told reporters.
Republican leaders in the Delaware State Senate said that the GOP in the General Assembly argued that the bills violated the constitution from the beginning, and the courts have agreed.
“The sponsors and Democrats ignored our concerns, dismissed expert legal testimony, and passed both pieces of legislation anyway,” Senate Republican Leader Gerald Hocker and Republican Whip Brian Pettyjohn said in a statement reported by Fox News.
“Today, however, the rule of law prevailed.”