Precourt: Is automatic voter registration unconstitutional?

A law was passed during the 151st General Assembly in May 2021 (during COVID-19 restrictions). The bill number was Senate Bill 5, and it became effective in 2023.

This law creates an automatic voter registration system at the Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles. It grants the state election commissioner the authority to implement automatic voter registration at other agencies that already offer voter registration services under existing law, which includes the Department of Health and Social Services. The law stipulates that an unregistered adult citizen who provides proof of U.S. citizenship during a DMV license or identification card transaction will be automatically registered to vote by the Department of Elections.

Automatically registered to vote? I hope they don’t start doing this with organ donors! Our Constitution gives us the right to vote, but this law takes away our right to choose. This law now requires a three-step process to register you to vote in the party you choose or remove your name if you decline to register. The Division of Motor Vehicles notifies the Department of Elections that you were automatically registered as “no party.” The Department of Elections places you in a “no-party AVR” status, and they send you a letter. If you return the letter (postage-paid envelope included), the Department of Elections will place you in the party you choose or remove you from the voter roll. If you don’t return the letter, you stay as a “no-party AVR.”

There was a fiscal note done, stating a one-time cost of $21,900 to update the kiosk at DMV. However, there are costs to this legislation that cannot be measured in dollars. This process hinders people that choose not to be part of the election process or have their information listed on the voter list. It is different if you choose to register as opposed to being automatically registered. This process hinders the voter, the parties and the candidates, and will clog up the voter rolls if people do not respond to requests from the Department of Elections.

Automatic registration sounds unconstitutional to me.

Cheryl Precourt

Dover

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