| HS 1 for HB 25 w/ HA 1 | Signed | Dorsey Walker | This bill provides for election day registration for presidential primary, primary, special, and general elections whereas currently the deadline is the fourth Saturday prior to the date of the election. Moreover, same day registration at polling places will be permitted with submission of an application along with a copy of a current and valid government issued photo identification or a current government document displaying the name and address of the person registering to vote. The effective date is January 1, 2022.
| AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 15 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ELECTIONS. |
| HB 311 w/ HA 2 | Signed | Griffith | This Act clarifies the scope and protections for individuals with disabilities under the Delaware Equal Accommodations Law (DEAL) and further aligns definitions and scope of DEAL with federal law protecting individuals with disabilities from discrimination by places of public accommodation, including the Americans with Disabilities Act. This Act is consistent with the Superior Court's decision in Ray v. State Human Rels. Comm'n, 2021 Del. Super. LEXIS 668, which held that "[a]ny interpretation to suggest the legislature made a choice to narrow DEAL's protection ignores both the express mandates and comprehensive guidance under DEAL. It takes away the right of a protected class member to be heard. As interpreted, Delaware law would need to reject what has been universally accepted."
This alignment with federal law includes all of the following:
1. Using the same terms and definitions for those terms.
2. Clarifying that places of public accommodation must make reasonable modifications in policies, practices, and procedures, sometimes referred to as “reasonable accommodations”, unless doing so would fundamentally alter the program, business, or service.
3. Clarifying that a public accommodation must provide auxiliary aids and services, unless doing so would fundamentally alter the program, business, or service or be an undue burden.
4. Clarifying that places of public accommodation must remove physical barriers if doing so is readily achievable.
5. Clarifying that state investigations of complaints must apply the requirements under state law in a manner consistent with equivalent requirements under federal laws.
This Act also does all of the following
1. Clarifies that an individual does not have to use the exact terms in DEAL to request a reasonable modification or auxiliary aids and services for the request to be covered by DEAL.
2. Extends the time to file a complaint under DEAL to 1 year.
3. Allows the Commission to waive the cost of transcript, upon application by a party.
4. Makes corresponding changes to the requirement under § 10006A of Title 29 that a public body allow a member with a disability to use electronic means of communication to attend a meeting because "reasonable modification" is the term now used under § 4504 of Title 6. The term "reasonable accommodation" is retained because that is the term used under state and federal law in employment contexts, which might apply to a member of public body.
5. Makes technical corrections to clarify existing law and conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 6 AND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO EQUAL ACCOMMODATIONS. |
| HB 369 w/ HA 1 | Signed | Griffith | This Act adds a member of the Delaware Bar, designated by the Elder Law Section of the Delaware State Bar Association, to the Delaware Guardianship Commission. This Act also makes technical changes to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 12 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE DELAWARE GUARDIANSHIP COMMISSION. |
| SB 262 w/ SA 2 | Signed | Lopez | This Act adopts the Uniform Law Commission’s (“ULC”) Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (“Revised Uniform Law”). As our State continues to recover from COVID-19, chief among the changes in the Revised Uniform Law relevant to our State’s current situation are those that permit notarial acts to be performed for a remotely located individual, an individual who is not in the physical presence of the individual performing the notarial act. These revisions include recent amendments made by the ULC to respond to areas the law needed to address that were discovered during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the need to have tangible documents ink-signed and notarized and the administration of oaths taken by remotely located individuals. Adoption of this Act will expand on Governor Carney’s authorization for remote notarization to be performed by licensed Delaware attorneys, codified in § 3156 of Title 20, by allowing all notarial officers authority to perform remote notarization.
In addition to retaining provisions that provide integrity in the process of performing notarial acts, the Revised Uniform Law does the following:
(1) Provides the authority to notarize electronic documents on par with notarization of tangible documents, including authority for the Secretary of State to regulate notarization of electronic documents.
(2) Requires a notary public to maintain a journal of all notarial acts the notary public performs.
(3) Adopts new licensing procedures for notaries public, including minimum requirements for commissioning and grounds to deny, suspend, or revoke commissions.
(4) Prohibits a notary public from acting in a deceptive or fraudulent manner.
Current Delaware law on notarial acts is an adoption of the Uniform Law on Notarial Acts, approved by the Uniform Law Commission in 1982. This Act’s adoption of the Revised Uniform Law would bring Delaware law on notarial acts into conformity with at least 20 other states, including all of the states bordering Delaware (Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey), which currently allow remote notarization and notarization of electronic records and include the updated provisions that enhance the integrity of the process of performing notarial acts.
This Act’s adoption of the Revised Uniform Law is delayed until January 1, 2023, to provide the Secretary of State and notaries public time to implement the Revised Uniform Law. In the interim, this Act continues the authority for Delaware attorneys to conduct remote notarization, codified in § 3156 of Title 20, until the Revised Uniform Law takes effect. Then, Delaware attorneys will be authorized to conduct remote notarization under the Revised Uniform Law, like attorneys in other states that have adopted the Revised Uniform Law. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 20 AND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE REVISED UNIFORM LAW ON NOTARIAL ACTS. |
| HB 391 | Signed | Gray | This Act amends the Charter of the Town of Millville.
Section 1 of the Act revises the closing time for the closing of the polls on the day of the municipal election, from 8 p.m. to 6 p.m. The Town relies on volunteers to serve on the Town’s Board of Elections and as Election Officers, and only a few voters cast their votes after 6 p.m.
Section 2 of the Act resolves a potential inconsistency in the Town Charter. Section 8 describes the Town Council’s annual organizational meeting and provides in pertinent part in subsection (b), “The Town Council shall likewise elect a Secretary and a Treasurer from its own number to serve until the first regular meeting after the next Annual Municipal Election.” Striking the one-year term for the Secretary under Section 16(a) avoids a conflict in the exact length of the appointment, in favor of Section 16’s provisions that include all positions and account for the possibility that the time between organizational meetings may technically be longer than one year.
| AN ACT TO AMEND THE CHARTER OF THE TOWN OF MILLVILLE. |
| HB 407 | Signed | Postles | This Act confers upon the Town Manager of the Town of Frederica the powers and authority conferred upon the Receiver of Taxes and County Treasurer for Kent County as set forth in Del.C. 87 specifically permitting the Town Manager to sell delinquent tax payer's real property through the monition process. | AN ACT TO AMEND THE CHARTER OF THE TOWN OF FREDERICA. |
| SB 294 | Passed | Richardson | This Act is the first leg of a constitutional amendment that would update the minimum voting age in the Delaware Constitution from twenty-one years to eighteen years. | AN ACT PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE V OF THE DELAWARE CONSTITUTION RELATING TO ELECTIONS. |
| HB 422 | Signed | Freel | This Act amends Section 3-304 of the City of Wilmington’s Charter to allow the City of Wilmington to determine whether, and to what extent, its employees are required to be City residents. This Act does not affect residency requirements for City Council Members. | AN ACT TO AMEND THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF WILMINGTON RELATING TO RESIDENCY. |
| SB 316 w/ SA 1 | Signed | Pinkney | This Act caps the amount that an individual, group, or State employee plan may charge for diabetes equipment and supplies, other than insulin, at $35 per month. This cap does not apply to accident-only, specified disease, hospital indemnity, Medicare supplement, long-term care, disability income, or other limited benefit health insurance policies. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 18 AND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO INSURANCE COVERAGE OF DIABETES EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES. |
| SA 1 to SB 316 | Passed | Pinkney | This amendment clarifies that the $35 per month cap applies to health plans provided for state employees and eligible pensioners who are not entitled to services, rights, or benefit under the federal Medicare program. It also provides that the health plans may not impose cost-sharing under the covered individual’s drug coverage. | |
| SA 2 to SB 262 | Passed | Lopez | This Amendment does the following:
(1) Delays the effect of this Act until August 1, 2023, and extends the authority granted to Delaware attorneys to conduct remote notarization, codified in § 3156 of Title 20, until this Act takes effect.
(2) Makes clear that a notarial officer may not attest to a copy of an official or public record that must be certified by a public official. | |
| HCR 101 | Passed | Longhurst | This Concurrent Resolution recognizes the month of October 2022 as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. | RECOGNIZING THE MONTH OF OCTOBER 2022 AS BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH. |
| SS 1 for SB 301 | Signed | Gay | The purpose of this chapter is to provide incentives for resident Delaware taxpayers to donate organs and bone marrow for transplantation and for Delaware employers to grant paid time off to employees who donate organs and bone marrow for transplantation. To that end, the Act allows Delaware taxpayers to claim a tax credit of up to $10,000 of unreimbursed medical expenses, travel expenses, lodging expenses, and lost wages that are related to a donation of an organ or bone marrow by the taxpayer or a dependent of the taxpayer. The Act also gives a tax credit to Delaware employers who provide employees who donate an organ or bone marrow with paid time off for the purpose of the transplantation, in the amount of 25% of the employee’s gross wages paid to the employee during the time missed from work, not including any amount paid to the person by the employer as traditional paid time off, for a period of up to 30 days of missed work for each donation. For qualified expenses used for a tax credit under the Act, to the extent otherwise allowable under Title 30, no tax deduction is allowed for either the donor or the employer.
This Act is a substitute for and differs from Senate Bill 301 by providing that expenses related to a donation of organ or bone marrow incurred in the taxable year before the transplantation took place must be claimed in the year transplantation took place. It also provides that lost wages, for purposes of the individual tax credit, do not include any amounts paid to the person as traditional paid time off, as other than traditional paid time off, as worker's compensation benefits, or pursuant to Chapter 37 of Title 19. Similarly, gross wages, for purposes of the employer tax credit, do not include any amount paid to the person by the employer as traditional paid time off. The Act also provides implementation dates for the individual tax credit and the employer tax credit. Finally, the Act includes minor changes made for purposes of clarification. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 30 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION. |
