Vote-by-mail application process allowed to continue as Supreme Court appeal looms

A Chancery Court judge is allowing vote-by-mail applications to continue after recently ruling that a vote-by-mail law is unconstitutional. The decision has now been appealed to the Delaware Supreme Court, which will hear arguments Wednesday, Oct. 5.

“Delaware voters are [despite arguments] adults fully capable of holding more than one thought in their minds simultaneously,” wrote Vice Chancellor Nathan Cook in an opinion released Sept. 19. “Here, I am confident that citizens will have little difficulty understanding that, although they may continue to apply for a vote-by-mail ballot, the availability of mail-in voting is the subject of litigation.”

Cook earlier ruled Delaware’s vote-by-mail law that allows anyone to apply for a ballot through the mail, vote, and then return it through the mail or drop box is not permitted in the state constitution.

The Department of Elections was sued by two attorneys – Jane Brady, who is also head of the state GOP, and Julianne Murray, a Republican candidate for attorney general – seeking to invalidate the vote-by-mail law.

In its earlier argument, the Department of Elections said the injunction against the vote-by-mail application process would put the upcoming election in jeopardy.

“To the extent that any truly material harm might arise from a stay in the interim, it would only arise upon the distribution of mail-in ballots to voters pursuant to the vote-by-mail statute,” Cook wrote. “I hereby stay the effect of the permanent injunction entered in this matter in all respects except as to the actual mailing or other dissemination of mail-in ballots to voters pursuant to the vote-by-mail statute for the upcoming Nov. 8 general election.”