In 2020, the General Assembly responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with emergency legislation allowing vote by mail for all Delaware voters. This decision played a significant role in record-breaking voter participation, with over 160,000 Delawareans of all political parties throughout the state casting ballots by mail. However, the vast majority of those voters won’t be eligible to vote by mail in 2022 unless they qualify as absentee voters — that is, they have one of the handful of constitutionally valid reasons for being absent on Election Day.
While legislators have been working diligently to amend the constitution, so that all voters may qualify as absentee, those efforts have been thwarted by partisan gridlock. It’s time for the General Assembly to act pursuant to its constitutional authority to ensure that the methods of voting in Delaware preserve the freedom of elections by introducing and passing universal vote-by-mail legislation before they recess on June 30.
Vote by mail is constitutional. The Delaware General Assembly is constitutionally empowered to “prescribe the means, methods and instruments of voting,” so long as those means, methods and instruments are available to all registered voters in the state. This means that, just like early voting and automatic voter registration, Delaware lawmakers have the authority to pass permanent, universal vote by mail without a constitutional amendment.
If those who oppose broader access to the ballot box want to challenge the General Assembly’s authority, they will surely have their day in court, just as they have on challenges to the 2020 emergency legislation, early voting and the permanent-absentee list. But make no mistake, those arguments are misguided and political distractions. Our legislators have a constitutional obligation to avoid the crisis of confusion facing tens of thousands of voters if permanent vote by mail is not implemented prior to the 2022 elections.
Vote by mail is beneficial for all Delaware voters. Voting by mail allows all voters to take time to study the issues and candidates on their ballot and get questions answered from the comfort of their own home and at their own convenience. It decreases the number of people voting in person at polling locations, potentially avoiding long lines and wait times on Election Day, and it maximizes the chance that elections may endure despite whatever unexpected threat emerges.
The option to vote by mail is just that: an option. It is an additional method Delawareans could use to vote. It will not replace other voting methods; instead, it will allow Delaware voters the ability to choose which method works best for them.
Thirty-four other states currently have permanent, universal vote-by-mail eligibility. Our General Assembly needs to make permanent, universal vote by mail available to voters in the First State, before it’s too late.
Chuck Durante
Partner, Connolly Gallagher
Wilmington
David McBride
Partner, Young Conaway
Wilmington
Matt Meyer
New Castle County executive
Wilmington
