Some US cities are allowing corporations to vote in local elections in hopes of stimulating the economy

• Seaford, Delaware is seeking to give business entities the right to vote in local elections.
• It's not the first town in Delaware, an already business-friendly state, to enact this policy.
• Some activists oppose the law, saying it "puts the idea that corporations are people on steroids."

Just 340 people voted in Seaford, Delaware's latest election, according to CBS. For a small town of about 8,500 people, that's a voter turnout of only 4%. 

A new bill now being considered in the small town, however, could help increase those numbers.

Seaford's town leaders want to give corporations based there the right to vote.

In April, Seaford Mayor David Grenshaw cast the tie-breaking city council vote to amend the city's charter, giving business entities — ranging from small businesses to large corporations — the right to vote in local elections. The bill must still pass through the state's legislature. On June 30, it passed the House and will appear before the Senate in the next legislative session, CNN reported.

Grenshaw said he hoped that giving businesses the right to vote would revitalize the Seaford community after the closure of a local factory led to years of economic gloom, according to CNN.

"These are the people we're trying to attract to our community, that we're asking to invest, to hire," Grenshaw told WRDE, a local news station. "Why wouldn't we want to give them a right to vote? I find it hard to believe, who wouldn't want that to happen?"

Despite Grenshaw's confidence, residents and voting rights activists worried about corporate influence in politics are skeptical.

Claire Snyder-Hall, executive director of Common Cause Delaware, a voting rights watchdog group, told CNN the law "puts the idea that corporations are people on steroids."

Under the 14th Amendment, corporations are considered people, and throughout US history courts have continued to grant them constitutional protections. In the 2010 Citizens United case, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations can spend unlimited funds on campaigns — as long as they are not formally coordinating with the campaign itself. The ruling led to the creation of super PACs that have the ability to receive unlimited funds and independently campaign for candidates, which has raised concerns about the potentially outsized impact of wealthy donors on election outcomes.

Seaford isn't the first municipality in Delaware to pass this kind of law. Delaware is already one of the most business-friendly states in the country. It has no sales tax, no tax on intellectual property, and no corporate income tax. Corporations all over the country register and keep addresses in Delaware for these reasons. The state, which has a population of just over 1 million, will likely soon be home to more than 2 million registered businesses.

In places outside of Seaford, where similar laws have been approved, it hasn't always gone smoothly. In Newark, Delaware, one property manager in charge of several LLCs voted 31 times in a single election, according to CBS, forcing the town to revise the law.