Gary is correct, the changes to the absentee voting process will require a constitutional amendment. In my initial discussion with the department they indicated that legislation would be sufficient. Upon further discussion with other sources, after the bill was introduced, it became clear that an amendment would be required. I hope to be able to bring this to the House at the beginning of the next session.

I sponsored legislation in the last session to allow ‘no excuse’ absentee voting. The current system is cumbersome and difficult. While I also received the estimate of the cost from the Department of Elections, I do not believe that it will cost nearly as much as they claim. There are many cost savings steps to take in our current system which would enable a much higher volume of absentee ballots at minimal cost. For example, absentee ballots are now opened by hand and scanned in to record the vote. The ballots are then stored for two years. Having supervised a high volume accounts payable department, I know that a $1,000 automatic letter opener would save a huge amount of time and cost. In addition, since we are scanning the ballots to record the vote, there should be no need to keep boxes of paper ballots in storage. Lots of room for improvement and cost savings.

The historic Felix Darley House. Darley Road and Phildelphia Pike in Claymont in the 10th District.
Walking distance from the Claymont Train Station and across the street from Archmere.