The General Assembly has been out on recess for most of this month to allow for budget hearings and the like. In the next two weeks, action will be ramping back up in Dover. And that includes Rep. Earl Jaques reintroducing his legislation from last session allowing for no-excuse absentee voting.
The draft measure would extend absentee voting to all eligible Delaware voters by removing several requirements limiting when a person can vote by absentee ballot. Under current law, absentee voting is limited to only those who are unable to physically make it to their polling place on Election Day. Those reasons are limited to eight situations, such as: in the Armed Forces, sick or physically disabled, on vacation or religious reasons.
Twenty-seven states already have no-excuse absentee voting, including Maryland and New Jersey. Last year, all 27 House Democrats voted for the bill, and all 14 Republicans voted against it. Unfortunately, since this bill is actually a Constitutional Amendment to Delaware’s Constitution, and the process for passing an amendment is to have the General Assembly pass the bill with a two thirds majority in both houses in two consecutive sessions (i.e. if the bill is passed this year, it will have to be passed again in the 149th General Assembly, or in 2017), the bill fell one vote short of a two thirds majority in the House. Yes, that’s right, not a single Republican stood up to defend the right to vote in the House of Representatives.
Given that the Democrats lost two seats in the 2014 election, and now only hold 25 seats to the Republican’s 16, we will require three Republicans to have the courage to stand up for the right to vote.
Here is our Vote Tracker for House Bills and then Senate Bills. As you can see, not much action has taken place yet, but the pace will pick up this month. We keep track of how our General Assembly votes on bills of progressive or liberal interest. Now, this chart does not follow all the legislation that has been filed. We don’t report on perfunctory bills, nor do we follow the progress of judicial nominations, executive nominations, or Concurrent or Joint Resolutions unless they are a matter of controversy. So the legislation that is listed is a matter of concern and priority for those of us on the liberal / progressive side of the aisle. I review every piece of legislation as it is filed, and if I miss something, Senators and Representatives on our side of the aisle usually call me out on it, so if I miss something it won’t be missed for long. You can download the tracker in the form of a Excel spreadsheet by clicking on the menu button in the lower right corner of each box.
