Bill Seeking to Make it Easier to Change Absentee Voting Law Defeated
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- Measure Could be Revived for a Second Vote -
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JUNE 11, 2021 - A bill that seeks to make it much easier for majority Democrats to change absentee voting laws in Delaware has been defeated, for the moment.
House Bill 75 would remove from the Delaware State Constitution the language governing how absentee voting is conducted in The First State. The measure also gives the General Assembly the authority to enact new laws to recreate the absentee voting process elsewhere in the code.
The procedure to change the constitution is a much higher hurdle to clear than that for passing a simple law. The former requires passage by a two-thirds (66.6%) supermajority in each legislative chamber in two consecutive General Assemblies. The later only requires a simple majority (51%) vote in the House and Senate and the signature of the governor.
Amending the constitution cannot be done in less than six months. Typically, the process takes one to three years. By contrast, there have been numerous instances in which new laws have been enacted in a single day.
As a constitutional amendment, House Bill 75 requires a minimum of 28 votes in the 41-member House of Representatives to pass. House Democrats presently hold 26 seats and needed at least two Republicans to vote in favor of the measure.
State House Minority Leader Danny Short (R-Seaford) explained after the vote why none of his caucus's 15 members backed the proposal. “While the proposed amendment had some support from our caucus on its first leg during the 150th General Assembly, in the time since then many of our members reexamined it and began expressing significant reservations.
"We repeatedly shared these concerns with House Majority Leader Valerie Longhurst (D-Bear, Delaware City) prior to today’s vote," he said. "To be clear, despite the sponsors’ claims, the bill does not authorize ‘no excuse’ absentee voting. Rather, it eliminates from the state constitution the provisions authorizing absentee voting and gives the General Assembly the ability to enact new laws to recreate it in whatever fashion legislators see fit. That change significantly lowers the bar for majority Democrats to manipulate the law, with no Republican votes needed. Using that power, I believe they intend to turn no excuse absentee voting into a ‘vote by mail’ system – a scheme that will benefit Democrats.”
Rep. Short said any doubt about the partisan nature of House Bill 75 was erased after yesterday's vote. "There were three Republican bills on Thursday’s House Agenda, one of which, ironically, was to make it easier for people to vote in municipal elections," he said. "Rep. Longhurst refused to allow any of those bills to be voted on in an act of retribution for the Republican vote on HB 75. We may not have seen the last of this bill, but House Democrats have given us even less reason to trust their good intentions on this issue.”
The House may not have seen the last of House Bill 75. At the last moment, Rep. Longhurst changed her vote on the legislation from "yes" to "no." Under House Rules, any state representative who is among the prevailing side of a defeated bill can ask for the bill to be brought back to the floor for another vote within three legislative days. On a social media post yesterday, Rep. Longhurst indicated she is considering this option.
In the meantime, State Rep. Bryan Shupe (R-Milford South), circulated a bill for sponsorship yesterday that would provide for "no excuse" absentee voting. Rep. Shupe said his bill contrasts with House Bill 75 in that while it removes need to have a specific reason to cast an absentee ballot, it keeps all the absent voting language in the constitution, safeguarding it against easy tampering.
Rep. Shupe said his proposal is not new. He indicated he had reached out to the sponsors of HB 75 months ago in an effort to strike a bipartisan compromise, only to be rebuffed.
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Minimum Wage Hike, Firearms Magazine Ban
on House Agenda Next Week
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A proposal to hike the state's minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025, and a bill seeking to ban any firearm magazine with a capacity exceeding 17-rounds of ammunition, are both on the next House Agenda (Thursday, June 17).
The remaining schedule for June in the House of Representatives:
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Tuesday, June 15 - Committee Meetings/No Session
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Wednesday, June 16 - Committee Meetings/No Session (This will be the last regularly scheduled House committee day of 2021. However, committee chairs can still hold meetings afterward at their discretion. Bills can also be released from committee without a meeting by the majority consent of the committee's members.)
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Thursday, June 17 - Session begins @ 2 p.m.
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Tuesday, June 22 - Session begins @ 2 p.m.
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Wednesday, June 23 - Session begins @ 2 p.m.
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Thursday, June 24 - Session begins @ 2 p.m.
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Tuesday, June 29 - Session begins @ 2 p.m.
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Wednesday, June 30 - Session will start at a time to be announced later.
To view the next House Agenda (Thursday, June 17), click here.
To view the Senate Agenda for Tuesday, June 15, click here.
Presently, House and Senate members are operating in a hybrid mode during session days, with most members at Legislative Hall. The public has a limited opportunity to attend session days at the capitol, but must register the day before on the General Assembly's website. For more information on this and other legislative activities, click here.
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Debate of Bill Seeking to Legalize
Recreational Marijuana Unexpectedly Delayed
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A bill seeking to legalize recreational marijuana in Delaware was on the House of Representatives' Agenda on Thursday, but was not debated.
House Bill 150, the Delaware Marijuana Control Act, has 10 pending amendments, seven of which were filed earlier this week. The nature and scope of these amendments; which ones could potentially be added to the bill; and how these changes could impact support for the legislation; created some uncertainty regarding its chances for passage.
The situation is all the more challenging for backers due to the nature of the bill. Because it would establish new fees and taxes, it requires a three-fifths supermajority vote to clear each legislative chamber. In the 41-member House, 25 votes would be needed for approval.
The bill does not appear on the next House Agenda (June 17). If it is not worked prior to the end of the 2021 session on June 30th, it will still be active through the second half of the 151st General Assembly next year.
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OPINION:
It is Time to End the
State of Emergency
By State House Minority Whip Tim Dukes
It is time for the governor to end his State of Emergency declaration.
Under Delaware law, the governor has an unconstrained and autonomous ability to declare a State of Emergency. This initial declaration can last up to 30 days, after which the chief executive can renew the declaration for another 30 days for as many times as he or she wishes.
Governor John Carney first imposed a State of Emergency in Delaware on March 12, 2020 to cope with COVID-19. Since then, he has renewed the declaration 15 times, the last of which was done on May 14th. It is expected the governor will issue his 16th renewal shortly.
I and my colleagues in the House Republican Caucus are calling for the governor to end this cycle.
Sixteen months ago, the governor was justified in taking bold action to deal with a public health threat that was largely unknown at the time. That is not the case today.
Every significant metric we use to track the impact of COVID-19 – hospitalizations, percent of persons testing positive, new positive cases – have been trending sharply downward for nearly two months. Currently, just 52 people are hospitalized due to the disease. Less than 30% of the 90-day highwater mark of 180 cases set on April 21st.
At the same time, about 62% of all Delaware adults (over the age of 18) have received at least one dose of vaccine. The groups most at-risk from COVID-19 complications are especially well protected. Ninety-one percent of senior citizens (the group accounting for 83% of all COVID fatalities) have been fully or partly inoculated. More than two-thirds of people age 50 to 64 -- the demographic segment in which another 14% of COVID-related deaths have occurred – have received at least one dose.
Additionally, more than 10% of our population has had confirmed cases of COVID-19, acquiring some level of natural resistance to the virus, regardless of their vaccination status.
Emergency orders aside, Delawareans have moved on. They are congregating freely, going to public events, shopping, and engaging in all manner of collective activity – largely without social distancing or the use of masks.
The State of Emergency has outlived its usefulness and there is little data to justify its continuance. It is time to end it, now.
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Senate Democrats Kill Legislation to
Improve Voter List Accuracy
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On Tuesday, Senate Democrats defeated a measure intended to improve the accuracy of Delaware's registered voter list.
Introduced by State Sen. Dave Wilson (R-Cedar Creek Hundred), Senate Concurrent Resolution 47 proposed the formation of the Registered Voter List Improvement Task Force to review current laws and practices associated with compiling and maintaining Delaware’s registered voter list and suggesting methods for improving its accuracy.
The issue of voter list accuracy was illustrated last year leading up to the vote-by-mail presidential primary held on July 7th, authorized by Gov. John Carney under his COVID-19 State of Emergency declaration. Testifying before the House of Representatives three weeks before that election, State Election Commissioner Anthony J. Albence noted that his agency had received the return of approximately 55,000 undeliverable ballots of the nearly 544,000 ballots distributed to Delaware voters. The number of ballots that were sent to the wrong residence but were not returned is unknown.
The 10-member task force called for in the legislation would have consisted of the State Election Commissioner, the director of each county Department of Elections, the Director of the General Assembly’s Division of Research, one member from each caucus of the General Assembly, and an appointee made by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget familiar with both the state mail system and U.S. Postal Service operations.
None of the General Assembly's 40 Democratic lawmakers supported the resolution, either as a sponsor or co-sponsor.
The resolution was defeated in the Senate, 6 to 13, with all the dissenting votes cast by Senate Democrats.
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