SB26 – Constitutional Amendment to lower voting age to 18

Senate Bill 26 is the second leg of a constitutional amendment that will lower the voting age listed in the Delaware constitution from 21 to 18. The Federal Constitutional Amendment doing the same became effective back in the early 1970’s and due to the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution, federal law trumps (ugh, we need a new word) state law on the same subject. I guess our daunted legislative leadership over the decades in both parties could not be bother to clean up our Constitution to bring into sync with federal voting law.

Well, in order to disguise themselves as champions of voting rights, House and Senate Republicans introduced this bill last year and it passed unanimously in both Houses. Delaware Constitutional Amendments must pass both houses of the General Assembly by two thirds majority vote in two different sessions. This bill reflects the second leg of that amendment process. And it will pass unanimously again, and soon.

Senate Bill 26 – Constitutional Amendment Lowering Voting Age to 18	Currrent Status – Senate Executive 1/10/23
House Sponsors – Briggs King, Dukes, Gray, Hilovsy / Bush	Senate Sponsors – Richardson, Hocker, Lawson, Pettyjohn, Wilson / Sokola
House Yes Votes –	Senate Yes Votes –
House No Votes –	Senate No Votes –
House Absents or Not Voting –	Senate Absent or Not Voting –

Here is the voting record from last year’s vote:

Senate Bill 294 Sponsors	Yes Votes	No Votes
Richardson, Lawson, Pettyjohn, Wilson, Sokola	Senate Passes 21-0. Brown Ennis Gay Hansen Lockman Mantzavinos Paradee Pinkney Poore S.McBride Sokola Sturgeon Townsend Walsh Bonini Hocker Lawson Lopez Pettyjohn Richardson Wilson	None
Dukes, Briggs King	House Passes 41-0. Baumbach Bennett Bentz Bolden Friel Bush Carson Chukwuocha Cooke Dorsey-Walker Griffith Heffernan K.Johnson K.Williams Kowalko Lambert Longhurst Lynn Matthews Minor-Brown Mitchell Morrison Osienski S.Moore Schwartzkopf Wilson-Anton  Briggs King Collins D.Short Dukes Gray Hensley M.Smith Morris Postles Ramone Shupe Smyk Spiegelman Vanderwende Yearick	None
Current Status:	Amendment must be passed by both Houses of the 152nd General Assembly by a two/thirds majority.