On May 26, 2026, a judge in Delaware issued a ruling that, according to posts on social media, allowed corporations to vote in American elections. News of the decision quickly spread online, and users debated its potential ramifications, comparing it to cases like the Citizens United v. FEC decision that opened the door to massive corporate spending in elections.
Snopes readers wrote in looking for more information about the ruling and its potential effects.
We found that the social media posts claiming the decision allowed corporations to vote in American elections contained a mixture of true and false information.
The case
The case in question was a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware against the coastal town of Fenwick Island, population 343.
In 2008, the Delaware House of Representatives approved an amendment to Fenwick Island's town charter. The changes allow "artificial entit[ies], including but not limited to corporations, partnerships, trusts, and limited liability companies" that own property in Fenwick Island to cast one vote in local elections.
In December 2025, the ACLU sued the town, claiming that the town's allowance of "non-human artificial entity voting" violated the Elections Clause of the state's constitution. That clause reads, in full, "All elections shall be free and equal."
The May 26, 2026, ruling dismissed the ACLU's lawsuit, affirming the legality of the town charter under the Delaware Constitution and allowing corporations to continue to cast votes in Fenwick Island's local elections. The ACLU claimed that roughly 12% of votes cast in the town come from corporations, noting that that was more than the difference between winning and second-place candidates in 2024.
The judge found that a previous case about the state's Elections Clause described elections as "equal" when "each ballot is as effective as every other ballot." Because the town's charter explicitly states that any corporation that casts a vote in Fenwick Island receives only one vote, the vote of any one person counts "no more or no less than any entity property owner," according to the ruling.
The ruling also points out that the ACLU's lawsuit did not challenge the results of an election, claim that corporations made up a voting cartel that would "usually defeat the preferred candidates of natural persons" or argue that the town charter violates the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.
"At this juncture, its claims that voting on behalf of entity property owners could have affected the 2024 election results are speculative," Superior Court Judge Craig A. Karsnitz wrote.
The judge noted that the ACLU is well within its rights to disagree with Delaware laws that allow some form of corporate voting, and that the idea that a large corporation could effectively control a small town through elections is "frightening."
But the ACLU challenged the charter based solely on the Delaware Constitution's Elections Clause, and according to the ruling, a property-owning corporation being allowed to cast one vote in the local election does not make it unfree or unequal.
Social media didn't mention everything
There are a few differences between how the social media posts portrayed the ruling and the facts:
First, the posts did not include the timeline of events, meaning that readers who saw only the posts would not have learned that Fenwick Island has allowed some corporate voting since 2008. In other words, this is not a new law. (Nor did the posts mention that there are several other municipalities in the state that also allow corporations to vote in local elections.)
Second, the posts exaggerated the effects of the ruling by incorrectly implying it had immediate nationwide implications.
The town charter of Fenwick Island, Delaware, is law only in Fenwick Island, Delaware. It does not grant Walmart the ability to cast votes for president, Apple the ability to cast votes for California governor
Whether the decision might eventually set precedent for the allowance of corporate voting in other states is unclear.
In a June 2 news release, the ACLU said it plans to appeal the decision to the Delaware Supreme Court.