A bipartisan bill to add primary elections to the special election process is ready for consideration by the House lawmakers.
Right now, local party members choose candidates for a special election if a General Assembly member vacates their seat before their term is complete.
State representative Mara Gorman’s (D-Newark) House Bill 183 would change that.
She told the House Elections & Government Affairs Committee that she conferred with Delaware’s Elections Department on logistics when drafting the legislation.
"The bill mirrors how our elections usually work," she said. "It's just a slightly compressed timeline."
It outlines that primary and general special election dates should be announced within five days of an office becoming vacant. The special primary should happen 35 to 40 days after that. The special general election would be held 35 to 50 days after a party’s candidates are chosen in the primary.
HB 183 also includes a provision that special elections dates align the dates of a regular election when these occur in the same year.
Gorman said more than 20 other states, naming Alaska and Mississippi, follow a similar process for filling open seats.
The committee’s vice chair State Rep. Eric Morrison (D-Glasgow) said the measure will improve perception of political fairness.
"Not that anyone is acting in a bad faith manner in selecting these candidates," he said. "But there is certainly a perception out there that (candidates in special elections) are being picked on either side, by party elites or by folks who are in the know."
The bill was voted unanimously out of a House committee and is ready for consideration by the full House of Representatives.
