Of the 57 municipalities in this State, the following 12 municipalities currently have an agreement with the Department of Elections to use the State’s Voter Registration System to determine if a resident of the municipality is eligible to vote in a municipal election: Camden, Delaware City, Dover, Elsmere, Georgetown, Harrington, New Castle, Newark, Smyrna, Townsend, Wilmington, and Wyoming. The residents of the 45 other municipalities are required to register with the municipality before voting in a municipal election. While some municipalities are exploring ending municipal voter registration requirements, this Act would do so for all municipalities as it relates to resident voters. A municipality would continue to be required to maintain municipal voter registration requirements for nonresident voters, as those voters would not be included in the State’s Voter Registration System. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
Sponsored bills
This Concurrent Resolution recognizes the month of May 2021 as Mental Health Awareness Month.
This Concurrent Resolution recognizes the 50th anniversary of CHEER, a nonprofit organization that has provided seniors in Sussex County with critical services for half a century.
This bill extends the amount of years an identification card is valid from four (4) to eight (8) years. This bill is necessary for the Division of Motor Vehicles to maintain consistent business processes. The driver license is currently valid for eight (8) years, and this change would maintain consistency with the driver license requirement.
Safe accommodation of Renewable energy delivery lines in the State ROW will foster the development of renewable energy sources in Delaware and secure a clean energy future for Delawareans. This legislation will limit the accommodation only to the extent necessary to allow connection to the electric power grid; to avoid interference with existing public uses; and to charge a fair market rental rate under this Chapter for use of the ROW.
In 2009, New Hampshire was the first state to develop a statewide "Gun Shop Project," reaching out to gun shops regarding the role they can play in suicide prevention. In the years since, at least 21 other states have implemented similar campaigns. This Act establishes the Delaware Gun Shop Project. The Gun Shop Project's primary purpose is to develop, create, and provide suicide prevention education materials and training, to be made available for dealers and consumers of licensed deadly weapons in Delaware. The Delaware Suicide Prevention Coalition will oversee the Gun Shop Project and include the Project's annual report in the Coalition's annual report. The Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health, which staff the Coalition, will staff the Gun Shop Project. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act creates a special license plate for those citizens who wish to support pollinator habitat creation and conservation. This Act requires a greater-than-majority vote for passage because Article VIII, § 11 of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of 3/5 of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly when a new tax or license fee is imposed.
This Act authorizes the distribution of testing strips to determine the presence of fentanyl or fentanyl-related substances. Fentanyl testing strips could be distributed to the community along with opioid overdose reversal medication as a harm reduction strategy in the opioid addiction crisis. A number of states have authorized fentanyl testing strips distribution in recent years including Maryland, Rhode Island, the District of Columbia, and North Carolina. Twenty-seven states currently provide fentanyl testing strips through needle exchange programs. According to an April 2019 Delaware Health Alert published by the Department of Health and Social Services, fentanyl is a potent opioid that is increasingly being mixed into illicitly sold drugs, often without the buyer’s knowledge. In Delaware, fentanyl was involved in 72% of overdose deaths during 2018, up from 58% in 2017 according to the state’s Division of Forensic Science. During 2018, there were more fatal overdoses than any year on record with 400 deaths. This Act exempts fentanyl testing strips from the drug paraphernalia statute. This Act provides the limitations on liability for lay individuals and organizations in Section 1 of this Act because of the extraordinary epidemic of death that is occurring in Delaware as a result of fentanyl being mixed into illicit drugs. It is similar to liability exemptions under § 8135(b) of Title 10 and § 6801 of Title 16 of the Delaware Code for certain types of volunteers and Good Samaritans and is an exception to the general public policy against civil immunity.
This Act clarifies that a lay individual who administers naloxone under the Community-Based Naloxone Access Program is protected from civil liability for rendering emergency care under § 6801 of Title 16, the general Good Samaritan law.
The National League of Families POW/MIA flag is a “symbol of our Nation's concern and commitment to resolving as fully as possible the fates of Americans still prisoners, missing, or unaccounted for in all U.S. wars” 36. U.S.C. § 902. In 1989, the United States required the National League of Families POW/MIA flag be flown on Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, National POW/MIA Recognition Day, and Veterans Day. In 1991, Delaware enacted Senate Bill No. 87, Chapter 88 of Volume 68 of the Laws of Delaware, which required certain state buildings to fly the POW/MIA flag each day. Senate Bill No. 87 was not drafted as an amendment to the Delaware Code and so was not included in the Delaware Code. This Act codifies Senate Bill No. 87 into § 408 of Title 29 to conform § 408 with existing Delaware and federal law in recognition of this State's commitment to our Veterans. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.