Corporations Are People. Voting Laws Should Follow.

COMMENTARY

Finally, our lawmakers are starting to get it. Corporations are people, or at least people-adjacent, and as such, we are guaranteed certain unalienable rights, including the right to vote (see 26th Amendment).

During this past legislative session, the Delaware House of Representatives passed a bill that allows corporations the right to vote in Seaford municipal elections (House Substitute 1 for House Bill 121), and it’s about time. However, the Delaware Senate failed to take up the measure.

At ACorporation Inc. we advocate on behalf of corporations to ensure we are treated fairly as persons under the law and while we see this bill as progress, there are flaws in this legislation. It does not treat us the same as other voters.

When the Senate hopefully takes up this legislation during the next session, this bill should be amended to require any corporation that has been granted the right to vote to meet the following criteria, just like every other voter:

• The corporation must be at least 18 years old.
• The corporation must be a registered voter in Delaware, and not registered simultaneously in multiple states.
• The corporation must not have committed a disqualifying felony as stated in the state’s constitution.
• The corporation must meet all other requirements as set by Delaware for anyone to be eligible to vote.

As we move full speed ahead down this path of granting more civil rights to corporations, we must be consistent with the standards and laws that apply to other people.

Chad Erpelding is the CEO of ACorporation Inc., a corporation that advocates on behalf of corporations to ensure they are treated fairly and consistently as persons under the law. He is also an artist and professor of art at Boise State University. Erpelding can be reached at [email protected].