Del. Superior Court rejects early voting, permanent absentee voting laws

U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Democrat, said she’s concerned the elimination of these options by the court will “disenfranchise Delawareans.”

“Especially voters who may be busy working parents,” she said. “Or older voters or individuals with disabilities. To me, we just need safe, fair and equitable access to the ballot box.”

A 2022 lawsuit filed by the Public Interest Legal Foundation on behalf of a former Republican state House candidate, Michael Higgin, successfully led to same-day registration and no-excuse absentee voting being struck down by a court ruling.

Hocker said he opposes permanent absentee voting, also known as mail-in voting. Before the ruling, voters were able to have ballots automatically mailed to them without having to apply every year.

“I want a true, fair election,” he said. “And I don’t think you can do that with absentee voting, same day registration and voting without ID.”

Democratic state Sen. Bryan Townsend said he’s concerned about the removal of early voting and permanent absentee voting for this year’s election.

“It’s just unfortunate, no matter what happens and looks like for 2024, these options are off the table or extremely handcuffed,” he said.

Democrats have attempted to pass a constitutional amendment to allow no-excuse voting since 2019, but the effort has lacked sufficient Republican support. GOP support wasn’t an issue when the first leg of the amendment was approved with the help of several Republicans in 2019. But some of those Republicans opposed it in later votes.