Responding to a lawsuit filed last week against the Town of Fenwick Island by the American Civil Liberties Union, Mayor Natalie Magdeburger defended the Town’s longstanding practice of allowing artificial entities to vote in town elections.
“We do allow ‘artificial entities’ to vote,” Magdeburger said in a statement read at the Town Council meeting on Friday, Dec. 5. “Our Charter speaks to the limitations imposed on artificial entities and the ability to cast a vote,” the mayor said.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday, Dec. 4, in Delaware Superior Court, alleges that the practice of allowing artificial entities, including corporations, partnerships, trusts, and limited liability companies to vote in municipal elections, “risks the dilution of votes cast by natural persons.
“The bedrock principle of American elections is one person, one vote,” the lawsuit reads.
In defending the Town’s long-held practice, Magdeburger said “a great number of the artificial entities that vote in Fenwick Island elections are family trusts that are either done for estate planning purposes or as a result of estates being administered and are generally associated with residential homes. There are also artificial entities that own business properties.
“Our belief is that everyone who pays taxes and is subject to our ordinances should have a vote to determine who is on Town Council representing them, including our business property owners. “Magdeburger continued.
“We also have in place the one person/one entity, one vote principle, meaning no matter how many parcels an artificial entity owns, they will only have one vote,” she said.
In their defense of the Town’s election practices, she said, the Town will “hopefully preserve the right for everyone who is a property owner in Fenwick Island, including our business property owners, to exercise their right to vote for representation on our Town Council.”
At the Dec. 5 Town Council meeting, Magdeburger read the section of the town code that addresses non-resident voting. “Every property owner as of March 1, prior to the annual municipal election, whether a natural person or an artificial entity including but not limited to corporations, partnerships, trusts and limited liability companies, if registered to vote, and if provided by ordinance, shall have one vote.”
The code defines a natural person as a citizen of the United States who is age 18 or older by the date of the election. It also declares that each “entity” is entitled to one vote, no matter how many properties they own.
Addressing the issue of family trusts, Magdeburger said “it is not unusual for family members to inherit their parents’ or even their grandparents’ property.
“We think it’s important that everyone in town who pays taxes, who is subject to our ordinances whether they’re a business owner or not, have a right to a vote,” she said.
The lawsuit, filed by ACLU attorney Andrew Bernstein, states that as of October, 214 “non-human artificial entities were registered to vote in Town elections and that those groups comprise 12 percent of Fenwick Island’s registered voters.
It also states that in the most recent election, in 2024, approximately 23 percent of all votes were cast on behalf of non-human artificial entities. There was no Town Council election in 2025 because there were not more candidates than there were open seats.
The ACLU’s case is based on several assertions, that:
• The Town Charter “contains no limitation on the number of artificial non-human entities eligible to vote based on their ownership or interest in any single property parcel;
• That the Charter “contains no minimum share of property ownership nor value of property owned required to register to vote; and
• That “multiple non-human artificial entities would potentially be eligible to vote in the Town’s municipal elections based merely upon a minor ownership interest in any parcel of land” in the Town.
The lawsuit claims that non-human artificial entities “may” sway the outcomes of elections. As an example, it states that in the Town’s 2024 election, with four candidates running for three seats, the winning candidate with the least votes “was only 55 votes ahead of the next highest vote-getting candidate, far short of the 109 votes cast on behalf of non-human artificial entities.
“This means that the votes cast on behalf of non-human artificial entities could have determined the outcome of the election,” the lawsuit states.
The 10-page lawsuit concludes that the Town’s election regulations violate the intent of the Delaware Constitution that provides for “free and equal” elections and that the U.S. Constitution also protects the citizens against “a debasement or dilution of the weight of a citizen’s vote.”
It also concludes that localities must have a “compelling interest” for allowing non-human artificial entities to vote, and that Fenwick has not met this test.
The ACLU suit seeks to end Fenwick Island’s practice of allowing artificial entities to vote, starting with their next election, scheduled for August 2026.
The Fenwick Island Town Council last week rejected a request from the the Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce for a permit to hold a bonfire on a Town beach during the Fire & Ice Festival in January.
Chamber Membership and Programming Director Emily Mais told the council at its Friday, Dec. 5, meeting that the Chamber proposed a bonfire on the beach for Friday, Jan. 30, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The Fire & Ice Festival, sponsored by the Chamber, features ice sculptures and special activities in several area towns during the weekend of Jan. 30-Feb. 1. Mais said two restaurants in town, The Station and JR’s Seafood Shack, would be participating in Fire & Ice activities and that the thought was that having a bonfire on the beach would offer another activity for visitors to those locations.
When Mais told the council members that the Chamber expects 15,000 people to visit the various Fire & Ice locations during the weekend, concerns came up about safety, parking and general logistics of adding a bonfire with just weeks to go before the event.
“I’m very concerned about the liability,” of such an event, Mayor Natalie Magdeburger said, “about being able to do it, and do it safely. The last thing we want is an event where somebody’s setting off firecrackers … and people get injured,” she said.
Mais assured the council that there are no plans for fireworks and no alcohol will be served at the bonfire, although she said s’mores stations were a possibility.
She said the Chamber has a safety committee that handles all aspects of the many events that are part of the weekend and that emergency responders would be on hand.
Council Secretary Jacqueline Napolitano, who chairs the Town’s Beach Committee and organizes the Town’s annual bonfire each July, expressed concerns about whether the Town could host such an event with only a few weeks to prepare.
Mais said bonfires have been held in Bethany Beach in past years as part of Fire & Ice, but beach conditions are not conducive this year due to erosion from storms.
“This is a huge, coordinated effort,” with hundreds of volunteers, Mais said. “It’s our largest event. We completely understand the lift of an activity for this festival weekend,” she said. “The mission of the Chamber is to support the community and the businesses.”
“I’m just nervous to do it this year,” Magdeburger said. “I don’t think that I have enough information to assure me that it would be safe.” She said the town doesn’t have a feel for what would be required in terms of public safety “and that’s the piece that’s troubling to me.”
“I would rather say let’s talk about hosting something in 2027,” Magdeburger said.
In other business, the council:
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