Legislation Introduced Seeks to Correct Delaware Election Ballot Position Bias
Delaware House Minority Leader Mike Ramone has introduced legislation that seeks to correct a current bias in Delaware’s election law impacting the outcome of countless races throughout the state. Numerous academic analyses have concluded that there is a considerable benefit to a candidate’s name appearing first on the ballot. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 15 states have enacted reforms to deal with ballot position bias. Delaware law currently mandates that one political party always appear in the first column on the machine ballots or on the first line of absentee ballots. This bill proposes eradicating ballot position inequity by adopting a randomized system modeled after the one successfully employed in California for nearly five decades. Republican senator for the 16th Senate District, Eric Buckson is an additional sponsor of the bill. State Representatives Rich Collins, Tim Dukes, and Ron Gray are included in the list of co-sponsors. A Committee Hearing takes place within twelve legislative days.
