Anyone who's ever vacationed at Delaware's beaches knows Fenwick Island. It's the "blink and you'll miss it" little town you have to travel through before getting into Ocean City, Maryland as you make your way to the area's largest boardwalk.
Fenwick is artsy and cute and quirky.
So quirky, in fact, that its town charter allows around 200 of its “artificial entities” – that is, town corporations, limited liability companies, trusts, and partnerships – to cast votes in its local elections.
Yes, you read that right.
Fenwick Island counts the "artificial" votes the same as it counts the votes of its human residents. And this isn't sitting right with the ACLU, which is pitching a fit and asking the Delaware Supreme Court to declare the town's "generous" voting rights unconstitutional.
A Delaware beach town offers broad voting rights to corporations, spurring broader debate over who should be allowed to take part in elections. https://t.co/3oJRHjAYnG
— Votebeat (@VotebeatUS) September 14, 2026
There's an important caveat here: A person who is both a resident and also able to vote as an "artificial entity" only gets one vote. No double-dipping allowed.
Fenwick Island didn't get here on its own. Delaware, overall, has done more than any other state to extend voting rights to business entities, although often that's for municipal issues and not political candidates. Fenwick has extended Delaware's policies to include votes for local leaders as well as ballot referendums.
Now, the quirky little beach town has found itself in the center of a debate over whether the right to vote extends to businesses and other non-breathing entities. Many locals are in favor of keeping things just as they are.
“I think it’s important that they allow entities that own properties to vote,” said Spiro Buas, the owner of Fenwick Shores, who votes on behalf of the Hilton Hotel franchise. “People that own property in town have a vested interest” in what happens in the town, he said.
Other residents would like to see some guardrails put in place.
“I don’t agree that the businesses should have a vote,” Lisa Ryan, who lives and votes in Dallas, said one recent afternoon while sitting on her screened-in porch in Fenwick Island a few blocks from the beach. “I’m a business owner in Dallas, and I don’t get an extra vote.”
Fenwick Island Mayor Natalie Magdeburger notes that many of the local entities that vote are connected to families with long, deep ties to the area. “We believe that it is important that all of our residents have a voice, or at least vote,” she said. “They are taxed and they are subject to our ordinances.”
Meanwhile, Delaware lawmakers are considering a constitutional amendment that ends the state's practice of allowing businesses and corporations some voting rights. And the ACLU is arguing that "voting is for people, not businesses."
Andrew Bernstein, the ACLU of Delaware's civic engagement counsel, commented, "One person, one vote’ is a foundational principle to American democracy.” He continued, “Allowing corporations to vote in Delaware, where over two million artificial business entities are incorporated, can drastically undermine the voting power of real, human Delawareans.”
Legal analysts, such as Dael Norwood, an associate professor of history at the University of Delaware, argue that the state's expansive corporate voting policies have “damaged the legitimacy of government” and “turned away from democracy.”
“It’s undermining the fundamental legitimacy of governments by removing popular human sovereignty,” Norwood said.
Mayor Magdeburger heartily disagrees, remarking, “Frankly, taking away the rights of our LLC or trusts, you’re trying to disenfranchise 200 voters for an election that has 900 on a good day, To me, it’s the antithesis of democracy, with a little ‘d.’”
Oral arguments before the Delaware Supreme Court are scheduled for 10:00 AM on September 23, 2026. Get yourself a box of saltwater taffy and watch all the fun here.
