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How can we expand voting access in Delaware?

Along with thousands of my fellow Delawareans, I left my COVID-19 self-isolation on June 9th to vote on the Christina School District referendum. It was a pleasant surprise to see an all-new machine in the voting booth, with a long receipt paper gliding up and down as my choices were printed onto a receipt. This paper ballot backup is a great step forward in securing our election process here in Delaware and was made possible by groups like Common Cause Delaware and the League of Women Voters who pushed for verified voting here in Delaware. While It is wonderful to see our electoral process improving, there’s still much work to do before all voters in our state have equal access to the polls.

Voting issues have been in the news a lot lately - the safety concerns and long lines in Wisconsin, the closure of polling places Georgia and Kentucky which disproportionately affected people of color and low-income voters, not to mention the fears of election tampering in the November 2020 election. Delaware has not seen such significant problems in recent years, but there were long lines at some polling places for the Christina School District referendum.

One way to ensure these issues will not affect Delaware voters in the future is to expand access to voting. People routinely miss their opportunity to vote because of their work schedules, caregiving needs, lack of transportation, or illness. Your ability to vote in an election should not depend on what community you live in, what your work schedule is or whether or not you drive a car.

About a year ago Governor Carney signed HB 38 to allow early voting, adding Delaware to the list of 39 states which already provide this expanded access. We will be able to vote up to 10 days before the election, but the law will not be in effect until Jan of 2022. In 2016, then-Governor Jack Markell signed SB 242, which eliminated the requirement that people who have completed their felony sentence pay all financial obligations before being allowed to vote. So how else can we expand access?
  • Making election day a federal holiday
  • Automatically registering voters when they turn 18
  • Making polling places more accessible
  • Allowing same-day voter registration
  • Expanding access to vote by mail
HB 175 has just been introduced in the Delaware legislature to expand “no-excuse” access to vote by mail. This would mean you could request an absentee ballot for any election without needing an excuse. This policy, which is already used in at least 28 states, eliminates barriers to voting for people who have difficulty making it to a polling place, such as college students who are far from home, working families, and people who lack access to reliable transportation. A similar bill, HB 346 has also been introduced, but it would only expand access to vote by mail for the November 2020 election.

How can you help get this bill through the legislature in the shortened session which ends June 30th? Contact your state legislators and let them know you support HB 175, as well as supporting the other ways of expanding voter access. Passing this bill will get us one step closer to truly free and fair elections in Delaware.
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