The Department of Justice will move to appeal a Superior Court judge’s ruling curtailing voting rights, and will support legislative efforts to pass constitutional amendments expanding and enshrining voting rights, Attorney General Kathy Jennings announced Tuesday.
Late Friday afternoon, a Superior Court judge issued a surprise ruling both denying the State’s motion to dismiss a partisan challenge to Delaware’s early voting law, and issuing an unsolicited judgment striking down early voting and the state’s 14-year-old permanent absentee voter law. The permanent absentee statute passed the General Assembly unanimously, including with the support of then-Rep. Gerald Hocker, the plaintiff in the Superior Court case.
“We respectfully but fundamentally disagree with this ruling and will appeal,” said AG Jennings. “No idea that requires silence to survive has any place in a democracy. But that is precisely the fight we’re having: in statehouses and courthouses alike, extremists are trying to empower losing ideas by eroding the right to vote itself.”
AG Jennings also urged lawmakers to support efforts to expand voting rights through constitutional amendments, beginning with Senate Bill 3, sponsored by Sen. Darius Brown.
In the last election, 56,000 Delawareans used early voting and roughly 21,000 — including veterans, the disabled, and caregivers — used permanent absentee ballots. If it withstands appeal, Friday’s ruling would impact all of them in the November general election. The ruling does not impact the April 2 presidential primary.
“Regardless of your party, where you live, or how you vote, you deserve every chance to exercise that right. Whether you voted for me or not, this is your right and I will never stop fighting for it.”
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