A slate of voting rights bills advance in the General Assembly, bringing Delaware one step closer to constitutionalizing early, mail-in and permanent absentee voting among other election-related bills.
Mail-in voting, same-day voter registration, permanent absentee voting and early voting have all been struck down by Delaware courts in recent years.
Only early voting and permanent absentee voting returned after the Delaware Supreme Court found the plaintiffs in that case lacked proper standing, but the merits of the case remain untouched.
This prompted State Sen. Darius Brown (D-New Castle) to introduce a constitutional amendment addressing those two voting procedures — along with mail-in voting — last year, but with Republicans claiming support only for early voting and not permanent absentee or mail-in voting, the amendment failed.
Sen. Brown is trying again this year, this time with two separate amendments: one for early voting and one for absentee voting.
The two amendments have already cleared the State Senate. Constitutionalizing early voting received full bipartisan support, but the absentee voting amendment only received Republican support from State Sen. Eric Buckson (R-Dover).
The two bills were heard in the House Administration Committee — comprised of the three Democratic and two Republican leaders of the House — Wednesday, where a story of similar party division unfolded.
House Minority Leader Time Dukes (R-Laurel) and House Minority Whip Jeff Spiegelman (R-Clayton) both back early voting but voiced concerns over potential fraud with permanent absentee and mail-in voting.
Rep. Dukes specifically feels as though death notices and change of addresses are not reported to the Delaware Department of Elections efficiently enough to support 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 said.
The early voting amendment was released from committee unanimously, but the absentee voting amendment only received support from Democratic leadership.
Both amendments will need support from at least one Republican to clear the House, and if passed, they will need to be reintroduced in 2026 and succeed again to be added to the constitution.
The committee heard a newly introduced constitutional amendment from House Majority Leader Kerri Evelyn Harris (D-Dover), which would enable the retention of voting rights for felons once they are released from prison, something Rep. Spiegelman ideologically cannot get behind.
“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 said.
Rep. Harris argues if a crime is so serious that a person should no longer be able to participate in society, that concern should be addressed through sentencing rather than their ability to vote.
The bill also updates outdated language in the state constitution that still reports the legal voting age as 21 instead of 18 and removes language — which has not recently been enforced — that requires a literacy test to qualify to vote.
The bill also removes the durational residency requirements necessary to qualify to vote due after being deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1972 Dunn v. Blumstein case.
Lacking support from Rep. Dukes or Rep. Spiegelman, the constitutional amendment heads to the House floor.
Other voting bills continue to make their way through the Delaware legislature, including State Rep. Stephanie Bolden's (D-Wilmington) tenth attempt to move up the statewide primary date to the same day as the presidential primary.
That bill was recently released from the Senate Elections and Government Affairs Committee, but it has notoriously failed in the Senate due to abstentions en masse.
Freshman legislator and Chair of the Senate Elections and Government Affairs Committee Dan Cruce (D-Wilmington) said during the bill's hearing it would not be his "prerogative to have something like that happen again."
Senators who are wary of the bill often note the date change would require them to actively campaign during the legislative session, which they argue could distract them from effectively addressing constituent needs.
The bill awaits a final vote in the Senate.
State Rep. Bill Bush (D-Dover) has introduced an additional amendment that would constitutionalize same-day voter registration, which is currently not accessible in Delaware.
That bill was released from committee in early April and still awaits a full vote on the House floor.
