Republicans in the Delaware House of Representatives have been the targets of unwarranted criticism for their opposition to House Bill 75 — a proposed constitutional amendment on absentee voting.
As a prospective constitutional amendment, this legislation needs to win approval in both legislative chambers, by a two-thirds majority vote, in two consecutive General Assemblies. On its first leg more than two years ago, many of our members supported the measure, accepting at face value the sponsors’ claims that it would simply enable “no-excuse” absentee voting.
Except, that is not actually what the bill does.
Since then, House Republicans have taken a longer and more methodical look at the legislation. It would eliminate from the state constitution the provisions authorizing absentee voting, while also giving the General Assembly the authority to enact new laws recreating absentee voting elsewhere in the code.
As previously indicated, the threshold for altering the constitution is intentionally set high. HB 75 would dramatically lower the bar for the majority Democrats to enact new absentee-voting and vote-by-mail laws via simple-majority bills — with no Republican participation needed. Regardless of political affiliation, most objective Delawareans can recognize the obvious temptation — and the potential for abuse — of giving one political party the unchecked ability to enact new election laws.
State Rep. Bryan Shupe, R-Milford, is currently circulating a bill for sponsorship for true “no-excuse” absentee voting. In contrast to HB 75, this measure removes the need to have a specific reason to cast an absentee ballot but keeps all the absentee-voting language in the constitution, safeguarding it against easy tampering. It is fair to wonder why the sponsors of HB 75 did not initially take this simple, more direct approach.
Joseph Fulgham
Communications officer
Delaware House of Representatives’ Republican Caucus
