Rehoboth against bills forcing use of state voter list

Rehoboth Beach officials have come out against legislation circulating within the General Assembly that would require the city to maintain two voter registration lists. 

During a March 18 meeting, Mayor Stan Mills initiated a discussion about House Bill 146 and Senate Bill 233. Both bills eliminate double registration requirements for local town elections, which for Rehoboth would mean keeping a second voter registration list because it allows non-resident voters.

Mills has sent a letter against HB 146 to the Delaware League of Local Governments on behalf of the city.

“The bill will force city staff to create two different voter registration lists that would be an administrative nightmare to compile and manage, one for residents and one for non-residents,” said Mills in his March 10 letter to the municipal advocate. 

In his letter, and during the meeting, Mills said the state’s criteria for proof of residency when registering to vote is less stringent than the city's, which could accidentally lead to a non-eligible person being able to vote in the city’s election. He said the bill would force the city to figure out who its 1,600 registered voters are from a list of the 19971 ZIP code, which has more than 13,000.

City Solicitor Glenn Mandalas said the bill recognizes there are municipalities with non-resident voting, but it doesn’t do anything to accommodate it. Two sets of election voter lists is horrible for election procedures, he said.

“It’s just a bill that wasn’t designed for Rehoboth Beach,” said Mandalas.

As of press deadline March 24, there has been no action on HB 146 since June 2021, but there has been action on SB 233, which was introduced March 3. That bill passed March 22 through the Senate and was then assigned March 23 to the House Administration Committee.

These two bills are essentially the same. The synopses of the bills are what differ – SB 233 doesn’t include some of the background information on which municipalities are already using the state voter registration list that HB 146 includes.