DE lawmaker seeks to remove dual voter registration requirements

DELAWARE-

One lawmaker in Delaware is hoping to make voting in local elections a little easier by removing dual registration requirements.

“Whether it’s meant to or not, it’s a form of voter suppression,” says District 36 Representative Bryan Shupe.

Representative Shupe explains that right now most Delaware residents have to register twice to gain access to all elections in the State. First they register with the State, for statewide elections. But then also with their local municipality to be eligible for local elections.

The former Milford Mayor references his hometown saying they have about 10,000 people who live there but only about 1500 are eligible to vote locally.

“A lot of people just don’t know and they will actually show up on election day and they’ll just assume that they registered through the State of Delaware, they’ve been registered for 20 years . . . and they show up and they say, ‘I’m sorry you had to register separately with they City of . . .,’ whatever it is,” says Representative Shupe.

He tells 47 ABC he plans to introduce legislation later this month to streamline the voter registration process.

Both the House and the Senate head back to work in Delaware virtually next week.