Delaware is getting closer to constitutionalizing early, mail-in, and permanent absentee voting, among other election-related measures, as a number of voting rights legislation go forward in the General Assembly.
In recent years, Delaware courts have invalidated mail-in voting, same-day voter registration, permanent absentee voting, and early voting.
After the Delaware Supreme Court determined that the plaintiffs in that case had valid standing, only early voting and permanent absentee voting were reinstated; the case’s merits were left unaltered.
This led State Senator Darius Brown (D-New Castle) to propose a constitutional amendment last year that would have addressed those two voting methods as well as mail-in voting. However, the bill was unsuccessful because Republicans claimed to support early voting but not permanent absentee or mail-in voting.
This year, Sen. Brown is making another attempt with two different amendments: one for absentee voting and one for early voting.
The State Senate has already approved the two modifications. While there was unanimous bipartisan support for constitutionalizing early voting, only State Senator Eric Buckson (R-Dover) voted Republican in favor of the absentee voting amendment.
Similar party separation was shown during the hearing of the two measures on Wednesday in the House Administration Committee, which is made up of the two Republican and three Democratic leaders of the House.
While both House Minority Whip Jeff Spiegelman (R-Clayton) and House Minority Leader Time Dukes (R-Laurel) support early voting, they have expressed worries about possible fraud with mail-in and permanent absentee voting.
In particular, Rep. Dukes believes that the Delaware Department of Elections does not receive death notices and address changes effectively enough to facilitate permanent absentee voting.
“The reporting of someone passing should be much quicker than what it is, but because of the looseness of this, I can’t support the legislation as it’s written but do support expanding absentee voting,” he stated.
The committee overwhelmingly approved the early voting proposal, while only Democratic leadership backed the absentee voting amendment.
For both amendments to pass the House, at least one Republican must support them. If they do, they must be reintroduced in 2026 and be added to the constitution once more.
House Majority Leader Kerri Evelyn Harris (D-Dover) presented a constitutional amendment before the committee that would allow convicts to continue to vote once they are released from prison. This is something Rep. Spiegelman strongly opposes.
“I do see it right and proper that some people should lose the right to participate fully as a citizen of this country because of the crime that they’ve committed has so permanently damaged an innocent person,” he stated.
Rep. Harris contends that sentencing, not voting rights, should be used to address the issue of whether a crime is so heinous that the offender should no longer be allowed to participate in society.
The state constitution’s antiquated text that still lists the legal voting age at 21 rather than 18 is also updated by the measure, which also eliminates language that needs a literacy test in order to cast a ballot.
In addition, the law eliminates the durational residency restrictions that were found unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Dunn v. Blumstein case of 1972.
The constitutional amendment goes to the House floor without the backing of Representatives Dukes and Spiegelman.
The Delaware legislature is still considering other voting measures, such as State Representative Stephanie Bolden’s (D-Wilmington) eighth attempt to move the statewide primary date to the same day as the presidential primary.
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Although the Senate Elections and Government Affairs Committee recently released that bill, large abstentions have caused it to infamously fail in the Senate.
During the bill hearing, Dan Cruce, a freshman lawmaker and the chair of the Senate Elections and Government Affairs Committee (D-Wilmington), stated that he would not have the “prerogative to have something like that happen again.”
The date shift, according to senators who are concerned about the bill, would force them to actively campaign during the parliamentary session, which they contend might divert them from adequately attending to the concerns of constituents.
The Senate has yet to cast a final vote on the bill.
Another amendment, proposed by state representative Bill Bush (D-Dover), would constitutionalize same-day voter registration, which is not now available in Delaware.
The House floor has yet to have a full vote on the bill, which was released from committee in early April.
