Every Vote Counts

Some states ban voting only during incarceration, or while on probation or parole. And other states and jurisdictions, like Maine, Vermont, and Washington, D.C., don’t disenfranchise people with felony convictions at all. The fact that these laws vary so dramatically only adds to the overall confusion that voters face, which is a form of voter suppression in itself.

Delaware is an outlier when it comes to felony disenfranchisement. Delaware is the only state in the Northeast which permanently disenfranchises at least some of its returning citizens and is one of only 10 states in the entire country to do so for people convicted of offenses unrelated to the conduct of elections.  

Felony disenfranchisement laws disproportionately affect Black and Brown people, who often face harsher sentences than white people for the same offenses. Many of these laws are rooted in the Jim Crow era, when legislators tried to block Black Americans’ newly won right to vote by enforcing poll taxes, literacy tests, and other barriers that were nearly impossible to meet. As of 2024, felony disenfranchisement affected 6,214 Delaware voters, 53% were Black and 58% were no longer incarcerated.

When Delawareans had access to early in-person and vote-by-mail options during the 2022 primary, approximately 1 in 4 Delawareans voted early either in-person or through a vote-by-mail ballot.

On June 28, 2024, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a decision of the Delaware Superior Court that had found Delaware's early and permanent absentee voting laws unconstitutional, restoring Delawareans' right to early in-person voting. While this reversal provides certainty and maintains voting access for early in-person voters and permanent absentee voters in 2024, anti-democratic interests will continue to challenge laws that expand access to the ballot. Delaware’s early and permanent absentee voting laws remain vulnerable to future lawsuits.

If Delaware were to lose early in-person voting options, it would be one of four states in the entire country to deprive voters of this option for casting their ballot, joining Alabama, Mississippi, and New Hampshire. Delaware is also one of just 14 states which requires voters to give an excuse to cast an absentee ballot. 

Same-Day Registration (SDR) eliminates the need for advance registration by permitting an eligible voter to register and cast a ballot at the same time on Election Day or during an early voting period. By combining registration and voting, same-day registration streamlines the voting process, eases the burden on voters, and increases voter participation.

Delaware currently ranks 34th out of the 50 states when it comes to its onerous and arbitrary, 24-day voter registration deadline — one of the longest allowed by federal law. Young voters and voters from historically marginalized communities are impacted most acutely by the deadline. The Center for American Progress estimates that same-day voter registration would have led to an additional 22,259 voters participating in Delaware's 2018 election. 

It’s past time to modernize Delaware’s voter registration system and remove unnecessary barriers to voting so we can catch up to the 22 other states that permit some form of same-day registration.