ACLU-DE announces constitutional amendment agenda to expand voting rights in Delaware
DOVER, Del. – Following a Delaware Supreme Court decision that struck down the expansion of absentee voting, the Delaware ACLU has announced a legislative agenda for passing a Constitutional amendment in the state to allow a new slate of voter legislation to move forward.
“When you take rights away from people, as we’ve seen recently, they don’t like it, and I think you’re going to see a strong opinion when people find out they can’t use a number of the methods to vote that they’ve had in the past,” said Common Cause Delaware Director Jeff Raffel, who joined the Delaware ACLU during Tuesday’s announcement.
This campaign will work to pass early in-person and by-mail voting options, same-day-registration, and, felony enfranchisement so people with felony convictions can vote upon the end of their sentences.
“This campaign is bigger than a single piece of legislation but represents a commitment to enacting these changes over the next several years in the state constitution,” said Mike Brickner, Executive Director at ACLU-DE.
The ACLU of Delaware is proud to partner with the Delaware Voting Rights Coalition a strong and vibrant group of nonpartisan, nonprofit organizations that will help lead this work.
“This is a long-term campaign because that’s a steep mountain to climb,” said Andrew Bernstein, Cozen Voting Rights Fellow at ACLU-DE.
Those behind the original lawsuit that struck down the expansion say, they are glad to see lawmakers going through the proper channels.
“The litigation was not about the policy but about the legality of the law. And if the general Assembly decides to pass a piece of legislation that would comply with the Constitution, then that’s their decision,” said Attorney Jane Brady, who says right now current state law does require registration every election.
That would require the constitutional amendment to pass to allow for legislation to allow for one-time voter registration to move forward.
“They would have to apply each time they wanted to vote absentee, as opposed to sign up once and get a ballot forever and ever,” Brady said.
Attorney Jane Brady says she already supports a GOP lead effort to expand early voting in the Delaware General Assembly.
The ACLU says while they know there will be opposition, they say voting rights are popular with voters across party lines.
“Engaging with these constituents and letting them know about what’s going on, what this election is going to look like versus past elections will be key to galvanizing support. We know these reforms, as I said before, had the majority and even super-majority support in some cases,” Bernstein said.
Now those changes would only apply to federal elections, while primary and local elections would still be subject to the expansions that lawmakers passed.
But the ACLU says that will create confusion at the ballot box, and hope this effort can unify the process across all elections.
In order to pass a constitutional amendment, both the House and Senate with a supermajority in two legislative sessions.
