Lawsuits Challenge Constitutionality Of Carney’s New Early Voting, Same-Day Registration Laws

Two bills signed into law by Governor John Carney on Friday will be challenged in the Court of Chancery.

On Friday the Brady Legal Group, LLC  filed a lawsuit on behalf of Michael Higgin and Michael Mennella challenging the constitutionality of vote by mail and same day registration laws signed by the Governor Friday morning.   M. Jane Brady, counsel for the two Plaintiffs and Chair of the Delaware GOP, brought the action alleging that the provisions violate the requirements in the Delaware State Constitution in several respects.

“The Constitution provides you must vote in person on election day unless you qualify under very limited conditions to vote absentee. Mail in voting clearly violates that requirement, as it allows remote voting without declaring or meeting any of those limited conditions.

The Delaware Constitution also provides that a period must be provided for new voters to register to vote but requires that the period ends 10 days before the election”, said Brady.

Brady continued, “But I must ask ‘Why are the Democrats hiding?’ Why did Delaware Governor John Carney sign the bills on a Friday – a day notoriously known in politics for the best time to take action regarding matters on which you don’t want much press coverage – in a private signing ceremony? Why aren’t Kyle Gay, Krista Griffith and the other sponsors standing proud and saying ‘Look what we did for you?’ Even more, why, when the bills fundamentally change the way Delaware voters can vote, are they not taking every step to let the voters know what the new laws are and the significant ways how they vote have changed?

I proffer that there are two reasons for that – first, they know that many Delawareans do not support mail-in voting. They know that, even since the 1980s, when former Democrat President Jimmy Carter chaired a bipartisan committee to look at the issue, we have known that mail-in voting increases the risk of fraud and reduces the integrity of elections.

But, secondly, the members of the Delaware General Assembly who voted for this bill know that it is unconstitutional. Indeed, several have publicly expressed real concerns for the legality of their action, including the Speaker of the House. For the past four years, the Democrat majority has been pursuing a Constitutional Amendment to allow them to make whatever laws they want regarding voting. When that effort failed, they disregarded their duty to the public and their oath of office and simply passed bills to do what they knew and had, by their actions and words, previously acknowledged had to be done by Constitutional Amendment.

We are aware that there is some urgency to this matter, and have asked the Court to act with expediency. I have been prepared to bring this action, because I believe it is so clear these laws violate the Delaware Constitution. The Governor delayed action for three weeks after the session ended. I had hoped he would seek good legal counsel and determine he should not sign these bills. Regrettably, today he did sign them.

I have no doubt that there are those who will say that we are trying to prevent people from voting. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are standing up for the rule of law and the integrity of our elections in Delaware.

“It has been my pleasure to again work with the Public Interest Legal Foundation, and particularly, Charlotte Davis,  in developing this litigation and preparing the complaint”, said Brady.

Brady made clear that the provisions of the Constitution do not affect the primary election in September.  “The language of the Constitution itself, and court decisions make clear that the provisions we feel are being violated only apply to the General Election”, said Brady.

Source: Delaware GOP Press Release

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