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Delaware court upholds voting by companies in small town's election (www.reuters.com)

submitted 11 hours ago by Infrapink@thebrainbin.org to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

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Delaware Superior Court Judge Craig Karsnitz said the beach town of Fenwick Island was not diluting human votes by allowing companies and other legal entities that own property to cast votes in municipal elections.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware sued the town, arguing it violated the elections clause of the state ⁠constitution. The group sought a court order blocking Fenwick Island from counting votes by "non-human artificial entities" in future elections.

The group said entities make up about 12% of registered voters in the town.

A lawyer for the organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The town's mayor, Natalie Magdeburger, did not immediately respond to a request for comment but told Reuters in March that the city believes "a property owner who pays taxes and is subject to our ordinances should have a say in who represents them on our Town Council."

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[–] BehindetheClouds@reddthat.com 51 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (3 children)

"a property owner who pays taxes and is subject to our ordinances should have a say in who represents them on our Town Council." —

Uh... Yes if they're a citizen of your town they already have that. It's called democracy.

My guess is these "property owners" don't even live in the fucking town or area or possibly even the state and maybe not even in the country.

Delaware Superior Court Judge Craig Karsnitz ruled on Tuesday that the town's charter did not violate the state's constitution's elections clause, which says, "All elections shall be ⁠free and equal." The judge said the clause has been understood by courts to mean free of fraud and noted there were no allegations of racial or other kinds of discrimination. — thick as two planks

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 11 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Given that we are talking about Delaware, how big are the chances that a good amount of those companies have the size of about one letter box?

[–] BehindetheClouds@reddthat.com 2 points 3 hours ago

how big are the chancesthat a good amount of those companies have the size of about one letter box? — exactly

This is what really blows my mind. In theory, buy a parcel of land, divide it up in to letter box sized addresses. Bam, you have thousands of "votes".

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 7 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I wonder if they could attack them from the other direction. Some individiual is making this vote as a "company" is just a piece of paper with no autonomy or ability to make a choice. I would imagine the person casting this vote on behalf of the company is also voting in whatever place they happen to live and AFAIK that's illegal.

[–] BehindetheClouds@reddthat.com 1 points 3 hours ago

I would hope. But you run into the problem of circumstantial evidence. Unless you have direct evidence it's very hard to prove conclusively.

And to be honest, the current state of the United States I doubt they would get any more than a slap on the wrist. Hell they probably get a presidential award lol

[–] solrize@lemmy.ml 9 points 10 hours ago

Make it equal representation! One dollar, one vote. :/