DELAWARE STATE SENATE

149th GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SENATE BILL NO. 119

AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 15 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ELECTIONS.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE:

Section 1.  Amend Section 1701(a), Chapter 17, Title 15 of the Delaware Code by making deletions as shown by strike through and insertions as shown by underline as follows:

(a) Every applicant for registration shall be a qualified voter if such applicant is a citizen of this State of the age of 18 years and upwards, or who will be 18 years old on or before the day of the general election next succeeding the applicant's registration, and is a bona fide resident of this State. No person in the military, naval or marine service of the United States shall become a resident of this State by being stationed in any garrison, barrack or military or naval place or station within this State; and no person adjudged mentally incompetent, person adjudicated delinquent for committing an act or violation of any laws of this State that would be a felony but for the child’s minority, person convicted of a crime deemed by law a felony, or person who shall have been rendered incapable of voting by reason of violating § 7 of Article V of the Constitution of this State for 10 years next following that person's adjudication of delinquency, or conviction and sentence thereunder, shall be a qualified voter. For purposes of this chapter, the term "adjudged mentally incompetent" refers to a specific finding in a judicial guardianship or equivalent proceeding, based on clear and convincing evidence that the individual has a severe cognitive impairment which precludes exercise of basic voting judgment.

SYNOPSIS

This bill would prohibit a person, who was adjudicated a delinquent for a crime that would otherwise be a felony if the person was not a minor, from being a qualified voter for a period of 10 years.

Author: Senator Marshall