The State That May Let Corporations Vote In Elections

Democratic President Biden has called his home “the corporate state of Delaware,” and Republican Sen. Mitt Romney has insisted that “corporations are people, my friend.” Embodying that bipartisan spirit in post-Citizens United America, Delaware Democrats are now advancing a Republican bill that would allow corporations to directly vote in a municipal election.

As GOP states across the country aim to limit voter participation, Delaware’s Democratic-controlled legislature has been considering a bill to allow the expansion of the franchise to businesses. The Republican legislation would explicitly permit the city of Seaford, Delaware “to authorize artificial entities, limited liability corporations’ partnerships and trusts to vote in municipal elections.”

The legislature has until June 30 to vote on the bill, when the legislative session ends.

With hundreds of thousands of corporations officially headquartered in a small Wilmington warehouse, Delaware has long been known for its business fealty. The state’s new legislation would allow corporations to upend the balance of power in Seaford, a small 8,000-person city twenty miles north of Salisbury, Maryland. Just 340 people voted in the most recent election on April 15 — and the bill would potentially provide as many as 234 votes to businesses in the community.

Two years ago, lawmakers in Nevada — known as “the Delaware of the west” — considered legislation from its then-Democratic governor to allow corporations to create their own governments. Now, Delaware could go even further than that failed legislation, giving limited liability companies, or LLCs, the right to vote not only in referenda, but also in regular municipal elections…