Election Inspector Sues Delaware Over Early Voting, Permanent Absentee Voter Status

People cast their ballots in voting booths at the 2nd Street Elementary School in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, Calif., on November 6, 2018 as Americans vote for the mid-term elections. Frederic Brown/AFP/Getty Images

An elections inspector in Delaware on Feb. 24 sued the state’s Department of Elections seeking a declaration that its early voting option and permanent absentee voter system were unconstitutional.

Michael Mennella, who has served as an elections inspector in eight polls, filed the lawsuit in the Court of Chancery of Delaware.

In 2019, the Delaware General Assembly passed legislation allowing in-person voting to begin at least 10 days before the 2022 general election.

The statute also permitted registered voters in Delaware to apply for permanent absentee voter status, meaning a voter could apply once for an absentee ballot and, upon request, automatically receive an absentee ballot in every subsequent election.

Mennella’s complaint cited Article 5, Section 1 of the Delaware Constitution, which specified a day certain for the conduct of every biennial general election.

The state’s constitution said the election must be held on the “first Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November.”

Mennella contended that to begin in-person voting at least 10 days prior to Election Day, as the 2019 statute provided, the Delaware constitution would have to be amended to allow for the expansion beyond the constitutionally designated day.

A voter reads her ballot while voting at the Legion Park polling place in Miami, Florida, on Nov, 3, 2020. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Statistics provided in the brief by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), co-counsel for Mennella, demonstrated a significant number of Delaware’s permanent absentee voters were listed as deceased by the Social Security Death Index and in published obituaries.

The complaint referenced the Delaware state website, which as of February 11, 2022, listed 23,000 permanent absentee voters on the rolls.

According to the complaint, some of those listed on the state’s permanent absentee voter roll have been dead from one to 10 years, with one having died in 2010.

Plaintiff’s co-counsel Jane Brady told The Epoch Times, “We are finding 12 to 15 percent of the 23,000 permanent absentee voters listed on the state’s roll have either died or moved away.

“It is important to bring this action to protect election integrity in Delaware. This is not a partisan issue,” said Brady.

People stand in line outside the Richland County Voter Registration and Elections Office on the second day of in-person absentee and early voting in Columbia, S.C., on Oct. 6, 2020. Sean Rayford/Getty Images

According to a Feb. 24 press release from PILF, Delaware’s new permanent absentee voter statute allegedly violates the state’s constitution, “because it grants an individual eligibility to vote by absentee ballot in perpetuity, without consideration of the applicant’s eligibility in each subsequent election.”

Delaware law does not mandate the State Election Commission to verify the eligibility of permanent absentee voters for each succeeding election.

Instead, the commission requires the absentee voter to notify the state of any changes in his status, according to the complaint.

Delaware State Election Commissioner Anthony Albence was not available for comment.

PILF President J. Christian Adams said in the Feb. 24 press release that Delaware election inspectors “are forced to choose between obeying the statutes or following the state constitution.

“We are confident the court will uphold the rule of law and the state constitution.”