HB 148 – Improving Election Administration and Vote Tabulation

The House passed House Bill 148 last week by a vote of 32-7-2. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Paul Baumbach and Sen. Kyle Evans Gay, would bring efficiency to the state’s election process by: 

• Requiring ballots and other materials essential to administering each election be provided to each polling location on Election Day.
• Allowing for the use of electronic ballot scanning and tabulation to replace written tally sheets.
• Clarifying the process for creating a duplicate ballot that can be read electronically if an original ballot is unreadable.
• Directing ballot opening and processing time to begin 30 days prior to an election, rather than the Friday before an election.
• Safeguarding against election fraud by requiring the election judge team to be comprised so that no more than half of the team are registered with any one party to prevent a dominating majority, while allowing for voters registered independent or smaller parties to participate as election judges. 

All Democrats voted yes along with eight Republicans. All the no votes were from Republicans.

HOUSE BILL 148 – IMPROVING ELECTION ADMINISTRATION AND VOTE TABULATION	Currrent Status – House Passed 32-7-2. Senate Elections & Government Affairs 5/19/23
House Sponsors – Baumbach, Carson, Lambert, Phillips	Senate Sponsors – Gay, Townsend, Walsh
House Yes Votes – Baumbach Bolden Bush Carson Chukwuocha Cooke Dorsey-Walker Griffith Harris Heffernan Johnson Lambert Longhurst Lynn Matthews Minor-Brown Moore Morrison Neal Osienski Parker-Selby Phillips Romer Schwartzkopf Williams Wilson-Anton // Dukes Gray Hensley Morris Ramone Short Smith Yearick	Senate Yes Votes –
House No Votes – Briggs King, Collins, Hilovsky, Postles, Shupe, Spiegelman, Vanderwende	Senate No Votes –
House Absents or Not Voting – Heffernan, Morrison	Senate Absent or Not Voting –

“Efficacy is key to our election process here in Delaware,” said Rep. Baumbach. “This bill makes needed updates that will improve elections and safeguard against election fraud.”

Rep. Baumbach added that election ballots may only be opened and processed at public meetings, with challengers present, and that the ballots are to be securely stored at all times. Further, ballot results are not permitted to be extracted or reported before the polls have closed on Election Day.