Delaware has 2.1M corporations. A judge is letting them vote in certain elections
Corporations are people in the eyes of the U.S. Supreme Court. In Delaware, they can vote.
A Delaware judge declined to strike a law allowing a company representative to vote on its behalf in local elections. The lawsuit, filed by a civil rights organization, concerned the “one person, one vote” principle and the legality of presumed out–of–state owners voting in elections.
The issue could arise in local elections throughout the state, where voting representatives of the corporations could outnumber residents. The American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware filed the lawsuit in fear of that possibility. Delaware hit the 1-million-resident mark in 2025 but is home to 2.1 million businesses. If all businesses were to vote through power of attorney, the process Fenwick Island requires of corporations, they could change the outcome of bond referendums, town council elections and other local elections.
Delaware Superior Court Judge Craig Karsnitz tossed the ACLU of Delaware’s lawsuit against a small coastal town’s law that permitted property owners of local corporations to vote in its elections.
Karsnitz never stated in his order that corporations could vote in Delaware, but instead said that the civil rights group lacked legal standing for the complaint, he lacked jurisdiction on the ACLU’s request, the organization failed to add other municipalities to the litigation, and the complaint didn’t state a claim they sought relief from.
“Visions of faceless large corporations or even HAL [Heuristically Programmed Algorithmic Computer from Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”], controlling a small town are frightening and the stuff of science fiction,” Karsnitz wrote. “However, Plaintiff has not demonstrated that this policy violates the principle of one person/entity/one vote.”
Delaware Secretary of State Charuni Patibanda-Sanchez didn’t immediately respond to Straight Arrow’s request for comment. The state has 1 million residents, and about 80% of them are of voting age, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The ACLU chapter said on its website that it is reviewing the court’s decision for next steps.
His dismissal is in contrast to a law Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, a Democrat, signed to reduce the influence corporations and so-called “dark money” groups have in elections.
The Hawaii law would curb corporate political spending, The Associated Press reported. It hinged on the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of Citizens United, a conservative group that wanted to run television ads for its anti-Hillary Clinton movie during the secretary of state’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Town home to 200-plus corporations
The court noted that the state amended Fenwick Island’s laws to allow the town to expand voter registrations and allow people to vote on behalf of trusts, limited liability companies, partnerships and corporations that own property in the town. The ACLU argued the provision diluted votes, which violates the state constitution.
The Delaware chapter of the ACLU said in a December release announcing the lawsuit that five towns allowed “artificial entities” to vote, and the lawsuit against Fenwick Island is the first known legal challenge to the statute.
“Fenwick Island has at-large elections, and in 2024 the number of votes cast by artificial entities was greater than the margin between a winning candidate and the top-vote-getting losing candidate,” the organization said. “As of October of 2025, over 200 artificial entities are registered to vote in Fenwick Island, making up approximately 12% of the town’s electorate.”
University of Delaware assistant professor Dael Norwood said in 2024 that the estimate is much higher, saying that nearly 70% of all Delaware municipalities allow corporations to vote. Typically, the votes are for referendums. Fenwick Island, Dagsboro and Henlopen Acres allow voting in all circumstances.
If owners of the state’s 2.1 million incorporated companies were to be recognized as registered voters in the state, it would nearly quadruple the state’s count of registered voters. According to the Delaware Department of Elections’ report for the 2024 Presidential Election, there were 788,441 registered voters.
Karsnitz wrote that places across Delaware have similar laws that allow property owners to cast one vote in local elections. But he maintained that the ACLU failed to show how the town violated the Elections Clause of the state’s constitution.
“Trusts, partnerships, limited liability companies, and corporations are expressly recognized as ‘persons’ in the Delaware Code, including Delaware’s Revised Uniform Partnership Act, Limited Partnership Act, and Limited Liability Act,” Karsnitz wrote.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
