Constitutional Amendment to Restore Voting Rights to Former Felons Introduced in General Assembly

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A constitutional amendment that would restore voting rights to Delawareans who have completed a prison sentence on felony charges has been introduced in the General Assembly. Senate Bill 180 would also remove the 5 year waiting period between release from prison and restoration of voting rights. This amendment would also remove the literacy test requirement in the Constitution, set 18 as the minimum age to vote, remove the durational residency requirements ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court and remove the contingency of monetary payment.

SB 180 has been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Additional information from the Senate Majority Caucus:

The amendment also would remove outdated limitations on voting contained in the state’s founding document that have been ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Senate Bill 180 would continue the restorative justice work undertaken by the General Assembly in recent decades by adding Delaware to a list of 20 states – both blue and red – that automatically restore every person’s voting rights upon their release from prison. 

Championed in Senate by former Sen. Margaret Rose Henry in 2013, the Hazel D. Plant Voter Restoration Act amended the Delaware Constitution to allow most people convicted of a felony to cast a ballot following their release from prison, repealing what previously had been a five-year waiting period. 

Three years later, Sen. Henry passed legislation that removed a requirement for those same Delawareans to pay off all of their fines and fees before their voting rights could be restored. 

SB 180 would remove the final prohibition on the restoration of voting rights remaining in the Constitution, which continues to disenfranchise Delawareans after they have completed a prison sentence on a felony for which post-incarceration suffrage has yet to be restored. 

Delaware is currently one of only 10 states in the nation that permanently disenfranchises people who have been convicted of specific crimes. Only Virginia disenfranchises all people convicted of a felony.  

In addition to restoring voting rights to all Delawareans following completion of their prison sentence, SB 180 would make a number of changes to the voting rights section of the Delaware Constitution to bring it into compliance with state and federal law. 

Those changes would remove a literacy test requirement in the Constitution that is prohibited by federal law; add language prohibiting the restoration of voting rights from being contingent on monetary payment in keeping with Senate Bill 242, which was signed into law in 2016; set 18 as the minimum age at which a person can vote, in keeping with the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; and remove durational residency requirements ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972.  

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