State Rep. Earl Jaques (D) has reintroduced House Bill 63, which is the first leg of a Constitutional Amendment that would eliminate all limitations as to when an individual may vote by absentee ballot. This amendment to the Delaware Constitution provides that the General Assembly shall enact general laws providing the circumstances, rules, and procedures for absentee voting. This could lead, hopefully, to all mail voting in Delaware like they have in Oregon.
A constitutional amendment needs a two-thirds majority from both chambers in consecutive General Assemblies to be enacted. This bill failed on party lines the last time, because, as you know, Republicans do not want to make it easier for people to vote because they oppose democracy. Therefore, it is unlikely this bill will pass given the current party breakdowns in the General Assembly, with Democrats controlling 25 seats but needing 27 (a two thirds majority) votes to pass in the House, and 11 seats in the Senate but needing 14 to pass in the Senate.
AN ACT PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE V OF THE DELAWARE CONSTITUTION RELATING TO VOTING
UPDATE: 6/8/2017
SPONSORS: Jaques, Henry, Townsend, Walsh, Baumbach, Bentz, Heffernan, Q.Johnson, Lynn, Paradee
YES VOTES:
NO VOTES:
HISTORY: Reporting out of committee on 3/29/17.
STATUS: Awaiting a vote on the House floor.
We have mail voting here in AZ. Very easy to vote….Don’t know why all states don’t do this. When you register to vote, you can choose to be put on the permanent early voting list so that you always get a ballot in the mail. They take you off the mail list only if you request it or if you move with no Arizona forwarding order. If you don’t mail in your ballot, you can either take the ballot to the polling place, or just go to the polls on election day and vote in the normal way
So glad you posted about this. This looks like a small thing, but this is the kind of effort that helps working people to more easily vote. If the GOP doesn’t want to make it easier for working people to do their jobs, take care of their kids and vote, then they should be beaten up on this item. There’s no percentage in letting the Delaware Way get in the way of cleaner and easier voting for working people in Delaware.