Delaware Voting Rights Coalition Town Hall: How Will Delawareans Vote in 2022?

Hello, good evening. I see folks joining us. We'll just give it a couple seconds. Sorry for the delay. We'll get started in just a moment while folks are joining us. Thank you all so much. It's ticking up Sixty-four, sixty-five. Alright, welcome folks. Alright, we have 71 participants with us right now live for our Delaware Voting Rights Coalition Town Hall. How well Delawareans vote in 2022. Thank you all so much for spending this evening with us for this educational, informational event. My name is Dwayne Bensing. I'm staff attorney with the ACLU of Delaware and today marks the one year point from the next time Delawareans will head to the polls in a general election. One year from day today will be an election day here in Delaware and the question we have is how will Delawareans vote in twenty twenty-2. 2020 was a tremendous election season unique in many ways. Um and in a lot of ways the election season that we're coming to in 2022 will be a little bit different. And so we wanted to have a town hall that shared with Delawareans the information that they need to know as they look forward to the next time that they cast their ballots. I want to give a special thanks to our planning committee for this event. Common Cause. Network Delaware and the ladies of Delta Sigma Theta as well as the ACLU of Delaware for putting on tonight's Town Hall event. This is on behalf of the Delaware Voting Rights Coalition. The Delaware Voting Rights Coalition is the first statewide coalition on voting rights of voting rights organizations and advocates throughout the state of Delaware. We encourage voters and policy makers to consider reforms that will improve access to voting and our focus is empowering communities as communities of color, people who speak English as a second language, people involved in the justice system, and young people to identify and remedy barriers to the ballot box. We work with legislators, many of whom are with us tonight. Uh local election officials and the Department of Elections to make these reforms and recommendations a reality. So, tonight's purpose with all of this skill sets that we have with with us for tonight's Town Hall is to educate Delawareans about how voting will be different in twenty twenty-two. Um before I before we we start looking back or or moving forward, we have a poll question for the audience to make sure you're all awake. Should Delaware actually, I'm I'm ahead of myself. Sorry about that. Apologize. Not yet doing that yet. Got off script. Reverse it. I have a very important guest that I want to introduce us to before we kick off looking forward, looking back to 2020, looking forward to twenty twenty-two. In 2016, it marks the first time that the first state has sent a woman, any person of color to congress. It is my distinct pleasure to introduce to you someone that I'm sure you already know. She's a fierce advocate for voting rights on the national level. She's going to talk to us about why voting is so important and what Delaware can do to improve voting rights Our. friend and Congresswoman, Congresswoman Lisa Block Rochester. Congresswoman, you're muted. How about somebody tell me? Thank you. Thank you so much for telling me that. Now, you missed my whole speech. No, but I really just wanted to say thank you so much. Um I just came to I I'm in between activities but I wanted to be here because I know just like you know how important voting is. Um I'm actually wearing my John Lewis T shirt today. Um because he truly was and still is a hero but so are you. the reality is you are making it possible for people to exercise that right to vote. And so in Washington DC, just wanted to let you know that we have not let up, we are not giving up, we are not going back, that the the for the people act is still in progress, so is the John Lewis voting Advancement, Voting Rights advancement act. Um, some of you may have been following the Senate, which is where those bills are, and also following just the really I think incredible positive news that our own Senator Carper put out a press release. Okay? Some of you shaking your heads, you saw it, Put out a press release to say what we know. Which is the fact that voting, voting is connected to everything and everyone deserves the right to vote, and no rule, no person, no party should be able to block us from our fundamental right of voting, and we all know that voting is connected to air and clean water. Voting is connected to the ability to get a house and to get a job. Voting is connected to of our right and so I am so excited for the work that you're going to do. Um get us ready Delaware. Get us ready Delaware. All of you. This colon I spoke to GK Butterfield from North to Kid. Terry Sewell who is one of the least and also John Sarbanes, the co author, the real author of the for the people at And I spoke to him today. And he wanted me to let you know that it's not because of just us or even John. It's because of you. You the pressure on. So, keep the pressure until we get this stuff across the finish line. Thank you, Delaware. Thank you, Coalition and thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Take care. Thank you so much, Congresswoman. Thank you for joining us. I knew that she would always, she would give us the energy in the room. So, thank you so much for joining us. I know you have such a busy schedule. Thank you. We will. We will. We've got a great team together to do it too. So, thank you so much. Uh just to give you all a little bit of a preview of what we're talking about. We just heard from Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester. Uh the next on agenda. We're going to talk about how we voted in 2020 and who voted in 2020. And then we'll look ahead. The twenty twentytwo about who will vote in 2022 and how will voters vote in 2022. And on the end tonight we want to hear from you. We want you to share your story about how you plan to vote in 2022. Each of you are going to be very important in this process as we move forward to ensure that Delawareans can practice their right to vote. So to help lead the conversation about what happened in twenty as we look back for a moment. I'm going to kick it off to my friend and colleague, Evelyn Brady with Network Delaware. Evelyn. Thank you, Dwayne. Uh good evening. My name is Evelyn Brady and I'm a voting rights advocate with Network Delaware and a member of Zeta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated. I would like to thank you all for joining us this evening and I would like to introduce State Election Commissioner Anthony Albance. Uh Commissioner Albes was nominated by Governor Kearney and confirmed back in June of twenty nineteen from 2007 until his appointment in 2019. He served as the county director at the Department, Delaware Department of Elections, overseen staff and operations in New Castle County. As the state election commissioner, he is an ex official member of the State Board of Elections. He attends all the State Board of Elections meetings, directs the operations of the Department of Elections, investigates violations of the state's campaign finance law, and is responsible for the security of records and the commissioner's office and collects and reports election results. He used the perfect person to have tonight to talk about what happened in twenty 20. Welcome Commissioner and thank you for being here. So, let's talk about twenty twenty How did Delawareans vote in twenty twenty? commissioner Are we? Is that better? I was. Oh, there you are. Yes, we can. On the phone. I'm not sure what happened there but that's okay. But I was just saying, thanks again for having me. I appreciate it. Uh, very much. And yes, 20 20 certainly was a very different year for us in Delaware. Um, you know, Delaware traditionally has been a state that historically, we voted about mostly like many East Coast states, mostly polling place voting, some voting in advance, in-person absentee voting, in advance absentee voting by mail but generally it was about 5% of the vote. You know so so not a lot. Maximum by 25, 000 ballots. And just to give you an idea because of that volume generally that was always done manually. Generally but on my my hands the process. Um so therefore obviously with all the changes that they've went through in 2020 by the time we arrived at the general election. Uh about 32% of our vote was either absentee or vote by mail. We had a hundred 000 of our 509, thousand or so ballots cast in the general election were vote by mail or absentee ballots. So, it was significantly different. Um it involved us completely reorienting really in a tremendously quick way how we operate. Like I mentioned, everything in the past was done, you know, manually by hand. We had to automate that, get equipment, get procedures in place, ensure we have security, hire a lot of additional staff, you know, thankfully, we had some funding opportunities available to the Cares Act and and such in the many of you may be familiar with which we and other elections jurisdictions received which is tremendously and plus, you know, for Delaware at the same time implementing new voting equipment the time as doing that. We thought that was going to be the big story in 2020 with new voting equipment. Little did we know what was coming down the pipe. You know with COVID when COVID had in store for us. Um so it was quite a year but we have a great team and I think everybody did a fantastic job amidst all the the challenges. So really happy with that. And everyone's supporting and and their accommodation working with us through all the changes. Thank you. Sounds like a lot was different in 2020, but you were all able to manage. I I was very excited to see the machines. That was a great addition. even though it got hidden and everything else. So, you talked a little bit about the percentages of how many people vote? Do you know how many people voted in twenty twenty versus and how many people voted by mail in twenty twenty? Well, we had about in the general election of 510, 000 Just over 5 00 nine thousand And 161, 000 of those. So, about 32% will vote by mail or absentee. So, our turnout rate. Yes, you had the highest turnout rate ever. We were just below about 69%, you know, overall voter turnout in the in the state. Um and you look at our numbers you know, what what's really interesting is that you know, when you look at our demographics if you will, our age breakdown, you know, when you get into and and then this is not just only in Delaware certainly but when you get into a a little more senior population and some some risk of the age ranges, you know, we have voting almost, you know, over eighty percent. Um so again, for some really high numbers. Um but again, we were, you know, fifty-nine, almost 70. So, we're, you know, record turnout, not just in in hard numbers but in percentages too. Um obviously, a lot of engagement. You earn this amount of interest as well and again, that 32% of vote by mail or absentee is huge and again, very very different. Now, again, I I of course, I know there'll be discussion of potential legislation because we don't comment on any potential legislation or anything like that but as you all know, the vote by mail legislation that was in effect, of course, in 2020 was time limited. It did, it did go out of existence January 12th of this year but absentee, the voting as a pre existed absentee for defined reasons. That of course still is in effect under current Delaware Law. Okay. Well, that is good to know. Um I'm sorry, did someone. Okay. So, you talked about having this huge amount of vote by mail ballots. How are these ballots tracked by the Department of Elections to ensure their security and did you have any problems or any problems? Well, our system, you know, thankfully, our system has a lot of safeguards in place already in addition to the individual applications that are reviewed by individual staff or the application is reviewed and if there's any questions or any further information or verification is needed, we have procedures in the cases that aren't the supervisors or if there's a more senior physicians to review applications. So, each of the applications are reviewed. Plus, you know, we have systems in place that ensure that an individual only has, for example, one active ballot at any one time for an election. So, if you requested a ballot for example and say, you destroyed the ballot by accident. You tore it. You spilled something on it. You accidentally threw it out, threw it away, you know, recycled it, what have you. You know, that happened human nature. Um but we have provisions so that that ballot for example can be cancelled and a new ballot can be issued. Each ballot it has the ability to be tracked. Not to the person ever. I would like to stress that. It's always the anonymity of the vote. But just the ballot itself being issued or returned. And we have end to end tracking as well. So not just keeping that individual that individual association with the voter The. tracking end to end. Not just internally. But what's the to the voter through our high vote voter portal. How individual voters can track their ballots. So, I just want to be sure everyone knows, you know, if you if you did a vote by mail last year or an absentee ballot, again, there's always that security from end to end and always ever one active ballot per voter So, I don't want, I want folks to be very clear and very reassured about that. That that is absolutely the case. It's always been our practice but obviously, we had to scale it up tremendously, you know, with the volume last year with the same principles apply for sure. And Sounds like all went well last year even with that. Yeah. You know, I think people, people adapted and and I must say, you know, locally, you know, we were very happy with our partners, you know, our local partners whether that be our local male USPS partners, you know, whether that be our local partners here in state government who helped us on the technology and information side, our internal folks, as well as the DTI Partners, Department of Technology, and Information. There's a lot of moving parts and the people work well together. I mean, nothing's perfect and we always know this for improvement. We know, you know, that that some folks, you know, maybe had some challenges at times but you know, our one of our watchwords, one of our hallmarks are our staff in all our offices are up and down the state. They're very committed to helping voters helping them if they have an issue, helping to solve the issue, and we know that that's the most important thing for serving that right to vote and making sure it is not abridge in any way. Well, thank you, Commissioner. That was a lot of great information and thank you for being here and sharing it and I think you were going to stay with us because we will have a later conversation about things that will be new in 2022 and we look forward to having that conversation then. Say, thank you very much. Thank you. Dwayne, we have a poll question. We sure do. Thanks, Evelyn and thank you Commissioner Albans for discussing all the changes we had in store in 2020. We had a vote by mail for the first time in the state. Um which was an exciting opportunity for a lot of Delawareans to get out and vote. We saw record breaking turnout in 2020 Our whole question is, let me try to get this one right. Um how did you vote in 2020? Did you vote by mail, in person, absentee, or didn't vote? That's our poll question. It should be popping up on your screens. We have 84 participants now just so you all know. So, lots of interest in this issue. Lots of folks really curious about how they're going to vote in 2022. Thank you all so much for joining. Alright, everybody get their vote in. We love voting in this group. So, want to make sure everybody got their vote. Well, go ahead and close that poll. See how folks voted. Lot of folks voted by mail in this group. 48% of the of our attendees voted by mail, twenty-seven percent in person, 24 percent absentee and we have one person who didn't vote last time but I'm sure they're going to vote next time, right? We can't miss our opportunity to vote and those of you that have questions throughout, please go ahead and put them in the the Q&A in the Zoom. We're going to have time at the end to answer some questions. If we miss it at this in any of our segments, don't worry, we'll get back to it at the end. Uh going into our to our next slide. This is next slide. We are going to talk about a little bit of the who is going to vote in 2022 as we look forward to 2022. we're going to talk about folks getting registered to vote and to lead us in that conversation, The executive director of Common Cause Delaware Doctor Claire Snyder Hall Claire. Thank you. Thank you, Dwayne. It's it's a great night to talk about voter registration with our two special guests and I'm glad there's a good turnout. Cuz tonight we're going to have a conversation with Senator Kyle Gay and Representative Sherri Dorsey Walker. Uh Senator Gay represents the fifth district. I'm sorry the fifth senate district which encompasses sections of Brandywine hundred including the Ardens. She began her professional career as a deputy, attorney general in the Delaware Department of Justice before checking, I'm sorry, before clerking in the Delaware Superior Court. Representative Dorsey Walker is the first person of color elected to the Delaware House from the third district in 20 eighteen. She is the former vice chair of the Delaware Legislative Black Caucus which she helped found in 2019. So, but before we get started in our conversation, I just wanted to point out that voter registration is important because it is the process through which we determine who's eligible to vote. Are you old enough? Do you live in Delaware and at the same time voter registration is also the biggest barrier to voting The voter registration deadline in Delaware in twenty twenty it it's it's pretty early in 2020 was October 10th for the election on November 3rd. So you have to plan ahead under the previous rules. Um you do not have to affiliate with a political party in order to vote. Um however if you want to vote in the primary, you do have to be in one of the two major parties. Um and in some districts, the primary essentially is the general election. So, primaries are very important. So, with all that said, Senator Gay, I'd like to ask you, first of all, I know you were very successful in championing, championing the automatic voter registration. So, what is automatic voter registration? Uh thank you so much, Claire and yeah, we were all very successful. I think the General Assembly really took up SB five and made it reality and that's in part I think because we were so clear visioned in the Senate and the House and I'm just really glad that my colleague Representative Darcy Walker is here as well because I think it just demonstrates how both chambers are focused on registration and how greatly that can change someone's life when they have the ability in our empowered with the right to vote and they actually exercise that right and we make it so that they can. Um AB automatic voter voter registration. It seems quite simple on its face and that it is a process by which we automatically register voters at the time that they demonstrate citizenship and interact with a state agency. Um in the case of Delaware when this bill becomes when it comes into effect on the first of January in 2023. That will mean through the Delaware Department of Motor Vehicles and I have to say that this bill would not have happened without cooperation from from Anthony and and from our folks at at EMD. Um and from who really made sure that we could do the behind-the-scenes work to ensure that this bill could be implemented. and so, what happens is quite simply that when a individual applies for like a driver's license for example and demonstrates proof of citizenship, which so many folks do, provide social security, card or they provide a a birth certificate, at that point in time, but they are then because they have the right to vote, under Delaware law, they are automatically registered that time. So, you said that this could happen at the at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Are there other places where it could happen as well? So, the great thing in my mind about SBfive is it doesn't just it didn't just make law for the situation that we know happens all the time now which is that folks interact and register to vote through the DMD. The law actually provides that the discretion of the commissioner himself and and his team at at elections that that data sharing, that secure data sharing between an agency could be expanded. The other agencies where folks are interacting with with the agency and providing document demonstrating citizenship and this is really important because we know that while about 90% of Delawareans do interact with the DMV and Del.not, all Delawareans do and we want to make sure that we make registration as easy as possible and expand this program where it makes sense and we're we can safely and securely do so. Now, I know that previously, we had a, you know, our motor voter excuse me, was opt in and this is an opt-out system but, you know, how does that work with the primaries? Because, I mean, if you're, if you're automatically registered, how do you, how do people end up choosing a political party? It's a great question and something that, you know, in designing the bill, we had to ensure that we took into account kind of everything that want to do with the DMV because thankfully and all all credit to DelDot and to to elections we've, had such a great registration model in the past at the DMV. Um the new model when it's enacted will be opt in I'm sorry, will will be opt out, you're right, and so, instead of someone receiving a postcard that says, you know, say they opt in to vote and then they would receive a postcard in the mail and it says, all is your all your voter registration. this case with the opt-out system, the individual is automatically registered to vote, they receive a postcard in the mail that indicates that they have been registered to vote and at that time, they have the option to do several things. One of those is to register with a political party and the other is to opt out and you know, that there is a actually a delay from when, you know, they would officially be on the role so to account for that and so, what we are doing here is making sure that we give folks as many options as possible that they are able to connect with party if they choose so but also that folks who choose not to be registered do not have to be registered through this program. Um and of course, because we have such a wonderful system in Delaware we can anyone who is automatically registered to vote can also go online and work on their registration and register with the political party there. Okay. But what if I got my postcard and I didn't do anything. And then I showed up at the polls. On primary day. would I be still be able to vote? So, that is where I think it's so important that, you know, we have our same day registration system secured up to. Um and I think probably Representative Dorsey Walker can give more information about kind of that day of process and how it currently works, and where we want to see it go from here. Okay, and so, do you think that this, that AVR automatic voter registration is going to, have a positive effect on keeping our voter file updated? Oh, a hundred percent. Um we hear so many things in the news about accuracy and everything like that. What we have to really celebrate in Delaware is the fact that even before SB5, we had a terrific voter registration model, a terrific voter information updating model and that's only going to continue with this bill. We're going to continue to have information being updated which means that as People move to Delaware away from Delaware and within Delaware their voting status is updated as closer real time as can be and the accuracy is there so that we have individuals voting where they live and where they have the right to. That's terrific. It's it's really great and let's let's segue now into our conversation with representative Sherri Dorsey Walker. Um Representative Dorsey Walker. What is same day voter registration And yeah what is it? And why is it important? you. Doctor Snyder Hall for this invitation and thank you to ACLU for hosting us as well as same day voter registration is a very important piece of legislation that needs to get passed in twenty twenty-two It's the piece of legislation that says that our constituents don't have to wait to vote. And let me explain to you what I mean about not having to wait to vote. If you don't register to vote in the state of Delaware the way the law is set right now. If you're not registered four weeks in advance, then you cannot vote. Here's the issue, life happens and we learned that with the coronavirus, things happen very quickly And honestly, it's not that people don't want to vote. We need to make it so much easier for people to be able to vote. I literally witnessed constituents turned away because they thought that they registered to vote. However, they had not. Or they will register some place else. And time is limited for people today. Families, children, the whole guy, your work schedule. And when people go to vote, it should not be difficult for them. And I thank all of you for helping me with this piece of legislation and I'm not really looking forward to working with Senator Emmett Gay on this piece of legislation. So, Representative Dorsey Walker, who do who do you think would benefit from this the most? Um being able to register the same day? Everyone. Anyone who wants to vote will will benefit from it. This is not a partisan issue. This is an opportunity for all of our constituency to be engaged in the process. Um do you know how many other states have same day registration? help me with this one. Doctor Snyder Hall I. feel like I'm twenty-5. I I feel like it's the bill number. House Bill twenty-five. I believe it is 25. But I could be wrong with that one. Something like that. So Yeah. So but let me ask you this though. Why why do we need same day registration when we have automatic voter registration? I mean. Outstanding question. The two are automatic voter registration. What happens if say for instance, your party gets shaded and you're unaware of it and this has to happen to constituents or say for instance, you move, you move, your address shifts, and you're at the polling place and the people are like, okay, well, the people who are working, the poll, the poll workers, ask for information about your address. It shifted. Say, they voter registration, eliminate any barrier that may exist. ABR is excellent piece of legislation. That is the sister or brother to save their voter registration. Yeah. We'll we'll really be a a leader in the country once we get same day voter registration passed on top of having automatic voter registration passed and also some other things we're going to be discussing later on. So, thank you. Um I guess I'm going to turn it back over to Dwayne. I think we have another poll question for folks. We sure do. Thank you all. Appreciate that conversation on registration and really hopeful that we can get same day registration a realit y here in Delaware. So, here's the question. How did you register to vote? Was it online mail at the DMV of voter registration event, or can you even remember, there's our poll question. How did you register to vote? morality here. Registered at the DMV. So, Senator Gay's automatic voter registration at our DMB's bills shows you just how important that is. That's a part of our cultural process of getting registered but we're leaving some folks out of that process and that's why Sherri Dorsey Rocker, Representative Dorsey Walker, same day registration bill is so important. Thank you all for your poll responses. Appreciate that. So, we talked a little bit about who is going to vote. Our next want to talk about this group of folks who may not know about their rights and eligibility to vote. So, thank you Senator Pinkney for joining us tonight to to have a little bit more about this conversation. So, I I know that this is a a voting rights town hall. We're talking about voting rights but this is kind of a a criminal justice reform issue. Could you kind of walk us through that Absolutely. So, hello everyone and thank you so much to the ACLU and Common Cause and everyone who put this together. Um I feel like this us as reformed citizens who are ready to participate in in everyday citizenship but we fail at that on so many levels including voting rates. Um one of the things that I think about so often is that how we continue to punish people once they're released from prison. Um we limit their access at the same time, we do this after having them spend years in prison where they're supposed to have been rehabilitated. Yet, we still continue to punish them on the way out when they're out which shows that something that we're doing is not working and we see that when it comes to voting rights as well where Delaware is one of I believe it's only nine states where people who once they're released from prison and are still on probation and parole don't have access to voting Um and so, their their sentence. Absolutely So, in in Delaware this is also a constitutional law issue, right? Uh yes. So, one of the issues that we run into here is that we continue to disenfranchise people. Um so, we allow them to come out of our prison systems, remain on probation, and revoke their ability to participate in in voting rights because they're on probation. Again, in the name of of justice but essentially, we're still failing them. Yeah, I I I was really interested in this issue particularly. I was following some litigation in North Carolina. They had filed suit on behalf of folks in the reentry community about this as a voting rights issue and then kind of went through the history here of how so many of our state's state constitutions were rewritten in the Arab post Civil War, you know, era in a way. These are these are Jim Crow laws essentially where we've written into our state constitutions, prohibitions, or limitations on who is eligible to vote, who is eligible to participate in our democracy that are kind of extra extraneous to whether that person has actually completed paid their debt to society as we say, right? So, it's really interesting. There's a piece of this that I think really relates to some of the the systemic racism that we see in our society of what are the barriers that we put in place between folks who are eligible to participate in our very democracy. Yeah and one of the things that I think is interesting actually I I discovered this as a result of a report that the ACLU wrote because you guys do amazing work. Um recognizing that we have a level of probation where we're keeping people on probation because of the fines and fees that they still owe. So if we're keeping people on probation as a result of finding fees that they owe and we're also saying that you cannot participate in voting because you oak funds and fees, we're essentially charging people a poll tax as a result of that. Um we're bearing people, we're barring people from their ability to participate in a constitutional right because they're still on probation because they can't afford to pay fines and fees that are that we have attributed to the to them because of their our their involvement with our justice system. Yeah, that that's actually a great segway to one of my next questions. I know in in 2016, Delaware passed some landmark legislation, SP two forty-two which address this issue of fines and fees. Could you talk a little bit about who is eligible to vote in Delaware because of SV two forty-two? So, essentially, you're eligible to vote if you have been released from probation and I believe I'm quoting this right 2016 is a little bit before my time but you know, if you have been released from probation. So, my understanding that is that if you're on probation in any form, then, you are still ineligible to vote in in any of our Delaware elections Um which again coming back to level one probation you can't or restitution on probation. You can be you can remain on probation as a result of restitution only. Um which is something that we still need to continue to address. Yes thank you. Priya if you'll get us to the next slide. I think we have an outline there to talk about folks who are eligible and I think as Senator Pinkbeam is just talking about you know the the completing the sentence is part of it and fines and fees should not be considered in determining whether a person has completed their census. That's something we've been working really hard with the Department of Elections and Department of Corrections to communicate with folks. Some people think that they're ineligible if they still have an outstanding fine in fee but that's the only part of their sentence remaining SB 24two made them eligible but then there's still this category of folks at Senator Pink and he was talking about. Doesn't matter what their convict or or where they are in the remaining time of their sentence if they are convicted of these certain crimes they will never be eligible to vote ever again and those those specific crimes are outlined for you on on this slide. Um and and just to show kind of how remarkable that is in comparison. Priya if you'll show us the next slide we have a a countrywide map of the United States of kind of where each state falls on reentry community, voting rights and, eligibility and you'll see Delaware and Maryland are red along some other southern states but we are really one of the worst when it comes to states that have permanent disenfranchisment based on any conviction history. So, these are folks who have paid their debt to society, the courts have, you know, decided what is the proper punishment and yet, even if they've completed their sentence, they are excluded from participation in our democracy. So, this is a really important issue as we think about who will be eligible to vote in twenty twenty-two. Uh folks with fines and fees because of SB 242, you will be but unless we have some legislative action, some other folks will be left out. Any closing comment center painting on this issue? Yeah, a couple. So, one of the things that I think is really interesting, if you look at the list that was on the previous slide is like, we have picked out what a lot of people would consider like these incredibly heinous crimes and I I think that we have kind of like a history of doing that, right? Where we pick out specific crimes and we say because you committed these, you're charged with these. We are going to give up on you forever. We're going to throw away the key for you forever. But if these are people that are coming back out into our communities, if these are people that essentially at some point will be released back out into our our our family as a state than continuing to engage them in society is important. Um if we really want people to be hero rehabilitated and to maintain that rehabilitation. We need to engage them and make them feel like they are that they're not being thrown away. How is the person supposed to ever fully reengage into a community if they're always stigmatized, if they're always other, if they're always forgotten and so, you know, I think that if you look at that list, it gets really easy to to want to write off these people who are charged with these specific crimes but recognizing that if they are here with us, we should want to do everything that we can to keep them afloat, to keep them engaged in the community, to keep them feel like they are a part of the community and not continuing to disenfranchise them which essentially just leads people right back to crimes because they're unable to sustain themselves. Um and also I think it it's important to point out that we are the only state especially if like around our area that that does that treats people this way. Like if you look at that map like we're not in great company you know so I think it's it's important if we want to continue to charge ourself as the first state. It important for us to to lead by example. Absolutely. Thank you. And and folks in the impacted community there on the front lines of really knowing, you know, what our Department of Corrections is like, what our justice system is like and and their voice is just as important as we form a more perfect union as anybody else's. So, I I really thank you for your advocacy on this issue, Senator. Thank you. Alright, it is time for another poll question. Our poll question, this is just making folks are are are paying attention. Uh let's get it up here. For people who have been incarcerated but have served their time voting rights are automatically restored, never restored, or it depends on the conviction. This is for in Delaware specifically. Alright, let's see. How are we doing? Are folks are folks learning as we go? There we go. That's exactly right. In Delaware it depends on the conviction. It's not automatically restored depending on on what your conviction history is. For some folks it is restored. Um but for others depending on their conviction. It is not. So thank you. Uh thank you for that information Senator Pinkney and thank you participants for or for our all of our participants for paying attention. I appreciate that. Alright, we're going to transition now a little bit. We talked a little bit throughout this Town Hall about absentee voters So, who is an absentee voter What is an absentee voter and will Delaware change that in the future? To help us in that conversation, I'm going to turn it right back to Evelyn Brady of Network Delaware. Sorry. Thank you, Dwayne. Hello, again. Uh I would like to welcome Representative David Bentz to our panel. Um Representative Bentz is a member of the Delaware House of Representatives representing District eighteen. He was first elected in the special election in September 2015 to fill a vacancy and he continues to serve in that seat today. Prior to being elected to the State House of Representatives, he spent four years working as a legislative aide in the House of Representatives and before that, he served as a legislative fellow with both the state, senate, and House of Representatives. Representative Benz is the chair of the Health and Human Development Committee, vice chair of the Energy Committee, and a member of the appropriations, joint finance, labor, and natural resource committee. Welcome Representative Betsen. Thank you for joining us. So, we have learned a lot about how we voted in 2020, how we will register to vote in for twenty twenty-two and about hopefully, getting more people opportunity to register to vote in 2022 and now, like Dwayne said, we want to talk about absentee voters Uh. Representative Pence, can you explain to us what is an absentee voter? Thanks for the the question. Thanks for having me and organizing this tonight to get some helpful information out to people. So, an absentee voter is, it kind of depends on, it's a legal definition, right? It kind of depends on what jurisdiction you're in in Delaware and absentee voter is an individual who is unable to vote in person for any number of specified reasons that are outlined in our state constitution. Um they are very prescriptive, very limiting, and it's only in certain situations that are listed on very helpful slide that are, you know, if you fit one of these criteria, you can be ineligible absentee voter in the state of Delaware. Thank you and one of the things that is missing on this list is in case of a pandemic and that explains why we had to make the emergency provisions in twenty twenty. Um can you explain to us how do absentee voters cast their ballots? The way it works right now is you would have to apply for it, right? It's a proactive step that the individual needs to take when they realize for whatever reason, one of these reasons listed on the side they are not going to be able to vote in person. Uh they need to apply for an absentee ballot from the Department of Elections. Uh to fill out a form. you know, get it. I think they have to get it notarized or they get it one point. You'd sign it, fill out your mark your reason why you can't be there. Submit it to the Department of Elections and then they will send you a ballot that you can then mail back that you can fill out and then mail back. And I believe Commissioner Albance explained a little bit of that process. One of the things we didn't talk about is do they, I think there are two ways. They can mail it or they can email it. Do you have any information about the differences between those two processes? So I I know that the the emailing was something that was I'm going to refrain from talking too much about that because that was really an internal process. It's Department of Elections that they developed and and Commissioner Albans would certainly be more authoritative figure to speak about that. Um but it was something that I think was pandemic driven and was some innovation that was done at the Department of Elections to sort of streamline process and I think you'd be a great person to talk more about that and if it's going to continue to be available. Thank you. So, let's talk a little bit about HB75 and what it does. So, House Bill 7five is the second leg of a constitutional amendment to strip out all of the approved excuses for being an absentee voter Um. so, all those excuses that you saw on the previous slide that are outlining Constitution that that needs to come out if we want to have true no excuse absentee voting in the state of Delaware so it's it's different it creates a much higher vote threshold than just passing a simple piece of legislation because it's it's language that is in our state constitution and it has to pass twice it has to pass in two consecutive general assembly. So, what does that mean? Okay, it means it needs to pass one general assembly that the House and Senate and then there needs to be an election and then a new general assembly can be and then it has to pass again the exact same piece of legislation the, exact same wording, doing the exact same thing and both times to meet that that higher vote threshold. Um not a simple majority but a higher vote threshold in each of those. Um so, it's a long process and what House Bill 75 is, it's the second part of that process. So, we passed the first one in 2019, which was hospital, 73 and now we have House Bill 75 before us. Now, and you see on this slide that we did have a vote on this bill in June, back in June, it failed and we had a situation where this bill was when it was House Bill 73 and April of 2019, it was immensely popular. Um had a lot of bipartisan support. Uh just kind of flew through the house and senate and now what we've seen is the rhetoric around absentee voting change in a lot of ways. I mean, I think we all, it doesn't really need to be said. We all kind of understand what happened in 2020 and how the political rhetoric around absentee voting changed and how it a lot of accusations remain about it being insecure and unsafe which are completely unfounded and that unfortunately really changed the political dynamic around it and we found ourselves failing to get the votes required this time when a lot of individuals sort of change their vote on the issue and and change their their stance on whether or not no excuse absentee voting should be something we have in Delaware Thank you, Representative Vince. So, you explained how HB seventy-three passed super easy but HB seventy-five after the election of twenty twenty did not get the same kind of support. Um I think that's a great explanation of absentee voters, HB, 73, and HB 75. Did you have any other final notes you would like to Yeah, I I just want to note that we're not done. So, the vote failed on on six 1021 The vote failed. We failed to get the votes. We did take a procedural motion. The majority leader voted against it for the purposes of bringing it back up so that we could lay it on the speaker's table. Um you know so there were some, we took some some some went through some procedures to make sure we could call another vote on it should we want to or should we have the vote? So the bill while it failed in June took pass we can we can still have another vote on it. We can still call it back up. It doesn't have to start all over again. Um so we have this coming legislative session from January through June to where we have to find a way to get these votes. We need two. We need two Republican votes for it. Um right now, we have zero. we have until June 30th of 2022 to find them. Um so if you have, if you are represented by somebody who has decided they don't want to see this bill pass, I would recommend you reach out to them and advocate for this bill, advocate for yourself and the people of Delaware who know that this is a good thing to do and I think a lot of these individuals who voted against it this time also know it's a good thing to do and the right thing to do because they all supported it in the past and unfortunately, the politics has become so toxic around the issue. Um but like I said, we do still have time. Um so, advocate Push let people know what you think. Let people know how important this is to you, and hopefully we can get to the point by June where we have shaken free a couple votes and and can try this again. Thank you for pointing that out, Representative Vince that it is not too late because I know we did have some questions in our Q&A where someone talked about why did it expire and they would like to see it come back. So, thank you for explaining what needs to be done to bring it back. Um we have from January to June. Thank you, Representative Vince your time. Um and I think we are turning it on to Dwayne and Representative Vince will stick around as well because we're going to have more conversation about twenty twenty-two. Dwayne. Absolutely. Thank you Evelyn. Thank you Representative Vince. Alright. You know what it is. It's a poll question. Have you ever been an absentee voter? That's? our poll question? Let us know. Still have 80 participants on. Let's see. How many of these folks have been absentee voters? Did I mess up the poll results? I'm not seeing it. Maybe we'll never know. I don't know. It's a mystery. It's a mystery. There we go. Yes, 61% have been an absentee voter and 39% have not. Um thank you for completing our poll. Appreciate it, folks. So, lots of folks have had experience with absentee voting but we still have a lot of questions about that. So, as we transition now, really fully looking forward into 2022. Commissioner Albance, I I want to start with you because we've had some questions about absentee voting specifically and I I think one of questions Evelyn asked, I think is a good opportunity for you to maybe address both how our absentee ballots cast and I think that depends on what kind of absentee voter you might be and then, how the other question we had in the chat was how are absentee ballots counted if they're counted any differently than than the mail ballots were or the in-person ballots. So, if you could address those two questions, that'd be great. Okay. Most absentee ballots are by mail. Uh they're they're they're you know, be sent by mail return by mail. There are provisions in Delaware law that permit electronic delivery in return of absentee ballots in certain situations and voter is sick or disabled or for voters that are called UACA voters That's an acronym that's relates to the federal law, uniformed overseas, criticisms, absentee voting act. Uh that's basically voters who are, for example, those in the military or civilians and they're dependents who maybe live overseas or live at a distance from their their home, you know, here in Delaware electronic delivery in return is permitted. Uh whenever I mention that, I do like to reference that that is the method of delivery return of the of the ballot itself. The ballot itself is always recreated on a physical paper ballot and is always that is how the ballot is processed. So, physical ballot, you know, existence and whenever those electronic ballots are delivered electronically are returned electronically, those are always when they're recreated on the paper ballot, that's always done with bipartisan teams of individuals under supervision and everything is law So, there's always a complete chain of custody as well. So, just wanted to make sure everybody, you know, certainly was aware of that. Um question about counting ballots, that's the question that often comes up. Um some people have a misconception that for example, absentee ballots are not counted or unless the race is closed or the margin is small or something to that effect but all absentee ballots and when when they were available vote by mail ballots are all counted and again, very strong controls are in place all bipartisan and really non-partisan, you know, procedures, teams to review them. But all of those ballots, every last one of them are counted. It has is makes no difference as to the margin in the race, the number of votes. Uh regardless of how you vote in person or by absentee, all counted and they all are registered the same way. Awesome. Thank you for that information. The next question I want to address or ask you about is early voting for the first time in in history, Delaware will provide early voting to voters in 2022. Can you tell us more? What is early voting? early voting essentially is the ability to cast your vote prior to election day and really it's kind of a format of a different approach if you want to call it that. You know, traditionally, our voters have been used to going to the polling place on election day without the designated day is or again, voting by absentee ballot or vote by mail when it was available. Um what will be the primary difference will be for early voting, individual voters will actually vote in a setting that's similar to a polling place when they walk in, it'll look like a polling place. They'll be voting on the voting machine, checking in at the poll books, that sort of thing. Um and what will be different about early voting, it actually hearkens back to some of our, you know, this is a very astute crowd. Um some folks may recall back at the presidential primary in 2020. We had a governor's executive order that covered that election and you know, it was rescheduled. A number of things have changed but some folks may recall that we had the implementation for the time in Delaware what was called vote centers at the time. So individuals could actually vote anywhere in their county for example. They didn't have to go to a designated polling place. That's when early voting will be like. They we will have multiple locations in each county. And you'll be able to go to any location in that county where you reside. You don't have to go to your normal polling place. And it may be a different place than your normal polling place. It may not even be a polling place. On election day. Um but that'll be the opportunity. But you'll once you'll go in you'll check in. You'll go in the sheen and it'll be very similar to your election day experience. One thing and we will be of course getting the word out educating folks about this. Just want to make sure folks are very aware of. As I mentioned, early voting will be a vote center model. You go anywhere in your county. Now, if you do choose to vote on election day, as you traditionally, you know, might might have, you would need to go to your designated polling place. Again, there'll be a lot more information coming out about that closer but we just want to make sure folks are aware of that. So, that will be a distinction but your experience inside will essentially be unchanged you know, to be very, very similar to you. Awesome. Thank you so much for that information. Uh belated to to to this issue that voters will be facing for the first time in 2022. We just had a question about the that's related to the redistricting process that we just went through. So, for some folks, they may be in a new representative district or senatorial district based on the results of redistricting. Um how will folks learn about that ahead of the election season? Mm hmm. Um all that in of course will be updated and we're in the early stages of doing that now. Um on our our on our sites on our voter portal and voter tool lookups. And we also do a mailing of two individuals, a polling place card. Many people may be familiar with those. Where they receive them. Uh usually mid year. Um in a year of a general election. Last year we didn't have that because we had all the various other mailings that went out. But we will certainly expect to be doing that in twenty twenty-two. and that will your voting information on there. You'll be able to note any updates because as you mentioned, some folks will be a new representative districts, different representative districts, their polling place. Although we try to minimize changes, sometimes they do need to change for any variety of reasons. The building is no longer available. Again, you may be in a different district. Um but there will be plenty of communication about that to folks. Wonderful. So, I thought I think is a is a good big picture overview of how voters are will vote in 2022 we know all qualified electors, those who register either through automatic voter registration will be eligible to either vote early or on election day, November one year from tonight. Uh you'll be able to vote and then who? Um we know that folks who are outside of the the their district on election day will still be eligible to vote as an absentee voter either by mail or by Email if they qualify. Um to to do it that way. So, that's that's the big picture answer of what we know moving into 2022 but just go our next slide. Um we still have some remaining questions and I've seen a lot of questions in the chat and on our Q&A on the Zoom. A lot of folks really want to know about one of the things missing from that list is vote by mail. We had Universal opportunity to vote by mail in 2020, but as we've discussed, that is not currently available to all voters in Delaware in twenty twenty-two. and I think just big picture zooming out. If we could talk a little bit about one of the questions we had is what is the difference between vote by mail in absentee voting. I'll I'll open that up to to anybody who may who might want to take a stab at that. Um this is Anthony. I can jump in just on that. Just from a functional standpoint, operational standpoint from elections perspective. Absentee voting is again, for individuals who cannot be present as a traditional polling place on election day for a set of defined reasons. Usually defined by Delaware by state law rather I should say here in our case, Delawa code. Uh vote by mail essentially is functionally similar, really the same as absentee but just no reason is needed. You just choose to vote that way because you prefer to as opposed to reporting to your polling place or an early vote site. So, that's come just from an operational standpoint that's on our eyes, that's how the the difference. It's really just more a reason difference if you will. And I think too, you know, from the kind of user experience, there wasn't a lot of you know, daylight between those two processes either. Although, functionally, you know, folks able to vote in 2020 using an absentee, you know, by expanding the absentee voter mechanism, kind of in practice what that looked like to an everyday voter was a vote by mail system. In center again, will you tell us more about why it's important to vote by mail a lot of the folks who, who may who voted by mail in 2020, may not have been eligible to absentee vote, otherwise. Can you tell us more about why it's so important, or what kind of impact vote by mail had in Delaware? Yeah, absolutely. In fact, I, I was taking down, I think some of the numbers that the commissioner had mentioned earlier, I think it was a hundred and 30 000 Delawareans voted by mail, and, and that was, you know, up from twenty-five thousand, for absent for, you know, absentees before. Um you know, this is the part where I get to brag about my district in North Wilmington with some of the highest turnout in the state and still, even though we had those huge numbers, vote by mail still over an hour to to wait at some polling places in North Wilmington and so, I I I think that when we talk about making sure that there's access to the polls, vote by mail, such an important part of that because we can make sure that individuals have the option to vote when it's convenient for them in a safe and secure method and you know, as I just said, really undistinguishable from what we did in 2020. Um it's just, you know, it's just a universal instead of falling under different categories as absentee traditionally has been in Delaware and this kind of voting regime at 34 other states have a permanent universal vote by mail eligibility. So, this is certainly not an area where we would be in no man's land. Not only have we done it ourselves in Delaware in 2020, but lots of other states have done it before as well without any issue whatsoever. So, that's a really great point to remember. Um and and you know, I think that we've we've kind of talked a little bit about the benefits of vote by mail but if anybody would like to discuss a little bit more about some of the other benefits of vote by mail that maybe we haven't talked about or just underscore some of those benefits. I think this is a really important voting rights issue that people are curious about. Dwayne, I had some feelings about voting by mail. Um Evelyn Brady here. I voted by mail in twenty twenty because I was working to polls and I wasn't working in my, so I guess I technically, I was an absentee voter I. wasn't working in my polling place but what I learned in partaking in that process is if there was any person on the ball that I was unfamiliar with. It gave me time and access to look them up, do some research, talk to some people, and you just don't have that access in a bowl, in a a voting booth. I have walked into voting booths in the past. And when you get down to some of the lower ballots, you're just not familiar as much as I try to stay engaged. So, I love the idea of actually taking the time and getting to know the offices that I was unfamiliar with as well as the people running for them. and I was, is I think, is one, the huge benefit because we all want to be informed, and we all want to be involved, and educated, and knowledgeable, and taking the time with your ballot, and your computer, I think is a great benefit to voting by mail. Thanks, Evelyn. That's a great point Yeah, I just want to add that, you know, there's really nothing partisan about voting by mail. Um for example, in Florida, they have vote by mail and it was the Republican Party that pushed for it. So, we know that it's that, you know, we don't have to go, we all know, you know, what happened and everything but you know, vote by mail is something that every Delawarean could benefit from, you know, just you know, if it's raining out or you know, you just want to be, you don't have to have, you know, provide an excuse to the government about While you're voting absentee but it's a whole different system where anybody could vote by mail for their own convenience, built from home. Yup. We definitely have participants. Go ahead. Oh, sorry. I was just, maybe you were and I were doing the same thing. I just saw someone ask about the senior question. Is that okay if I comment on that? Please, go ahead. Okay, great. Yes. So, I think what's so interesting is what we've traditionally, the question for those in the chat was about, you know, are we really disenfranchising seniors if we take away this opportunity to vote by mail and you know, I think, I think the answer is yes. I think that if we, traditionally, we have had structures to make sure that everyone can vote and communities really come out and you think about people who drive folks to the polls, you think about people who are you know, a lot of times there's actually voting centers in communities where many elderly folks are. So, like, we have always kind of tried to do our best but we can't really do better than putting the opportunity to vote their own hands to control when and where they vote and and in a way that is convenient and accessible for them if they cannot make it to the polls on their own. And so I I do think the senior population is someone we really need to consider when we think about vote by mail and accessibility. And I think just you know it underscores how vote by mail is a tool for the unexpected. You know we couldn't have people driving other Delawareans to the polls during the pandemic. We did not have access to vaccines. We were unsure, you know, of what how it was transmitting at that time really. So, we really needed to have another way. We found another way. If we had to vote by mail, we would have a tool to fight the next unexpected occurrence to happen during election. Absolutely. Yup and another comment I saw in the chat was about, you know, the long waiting lines of voting in person and so voting by mail, you know, can decrease the number of people that are voting in person at polling locations and you know, maybe maybe you don't have be scared of a pandemic to not want to hang out with a lot of strangers at a school gymnasium. So, there are lots of lots of potential benefits of of being able to cast your ballot by mail. Another question we got in the chat was about this question of I know HB 75 is a constitutional amendment and Representative Benz walked us through what that process looks like. Um so, the question here was, do we need a constitutional amendment to allow vote by mail in Delaware? I'm happy to let Representative Benz take a first shot at that one. I think that that would if you got a couple lawyers in the room, you may have a difference of opinion on that topic and it's something that we're going to have to explore and I know my colleague, Senator Gay is an attorney and has viewpoints on this and and it does seem like there's probably a window for us to do it. Um and I had looked to her expand upon that. I've heard her talk about it before and it makes a lot of sense. Well, I appreciate it and I think what what this underscores is just how important HB75 is to the process and how important it is. It it is for us to explore any other opportunities to open up a vote by mail to individuals in in Delaware. Um I think my colleague Senator Lockman said it best. Uh I saw her quoted in in the news, you know, that we just have to explore everything. Uh you know, explore every agency that we can here. Um because of the access issues we've talked about and I think you know, importantly, when we're talking about absentee voting, just as you had it set up here, we were talking about kind of, you know, who can vote in this very prescribed mechanism. When we're talking about vote by mail, we're talking about how someone can vote and really, you know, I think as an as a representative then said, reasonable minds may differ but we need to really investigate and do the work to to you know, make sure that we are doing the best on behalf of our constituents and if that means doing opportunities statutory to expand vote by mail. I think that's what we have to do. Um we we gave Delawareans an opportunity to exercise the franchise in a very accessible way in 2020. To go back I think is really taking something away. Um and I would I I know that we all credit to our Department of Elections who did it safely, securely. Uh I think on a great budget and and with and with little not not all the time in the world I that our commissioner would have liked but made sure that, you know, I said earlier, my constituents had excellent service from elections and and I I appreciate that very much. Um I think we can continue to see we can continue with exploring vote by mail and and I'm excited, you know, hopefully folks who are listening tonight are interested and hopefully my colleagues are interested in having those conversations as well. Thank you, Senator Gay and I mean just underscored that that that even when our state and nation, our world, you know, faced a pandemic, there were legal challenges to the general assembly's response to that and we saw overwhelmingly Delawareans appreciated the opportunity to vote by mail, elected to vote by mail, and even that, even with an emergency when the General Assembly used their emergency powers to permit that and a Court of Health that the General Assembly had that power to do so. So, I'm inspired that the General Assembly does have the authority to to help increase accessibility to voting and I think a lot of our participants tonight, there's a lot interest in the chat and in our questions on vote by mail. So, I think there's a lot of folks really eager to to assist the General Assembly in moving forward in that direction. So, so thank you for that advocacy. Uh switching subjects a little bit, I want to get Senator Pinkney back in here a little bit. I had a question in the chat about anything in place to ensure that individuals in prison for violations that don't strip them of their voting rights. So, folks maybe being held on lower misdemeanor charge or something like that. Um anything that ensures that they are allowed to vote either by mail or otherwise I might need you to repeat the question again. What are we referring to once they're released or why they're still in prison? While they're still being held pre-trial. So, pre-trial detention folks who are still otherwise eligible to vote. Is there any process in place for those folks to make sure that they're able to exercise their right? That is a phenomenal question that I'm embarrassed to say. I don't know the answer to because our laws are so all over the place when it comes to those of those that we house in our prison systems and that are involved in our justice system. Um I don't believe that while they're on pre-child their their votes should be withheld from them but I would have to look into that for a bit and make sure that it's actually the case. Thank you. Yeah, I think that's a really combo. There there are folks that are kind of falling in this trap of pre conviction but are still being held on on pre-trial detention and so, we want to make sure that everybody who's who's eligible is able to cast their ballots. Thank you for that. For that question and thank you for that conversation Uh and this question I think is going to be great for Representative Dorsey Walker. I hope she's still on there. She is a her picture up. How far ahead of a primary can someone select or change a party affiliation and how would same day registration impact that process? Great question It's the same as our processes right now, four weeks in advance. So, four weeks in advance, if I want to vote in a primary, I have to make sure I've registered four weeks ahead of time and and I know even that they sell you, we receive reports every election sees, every primary election. People complain to our offices saying, you know, I'm registered. I've always been a Democrat but for whatever reason, my registration didn't come up as a Democrat. It said, I was a Green Party person or something like that and then they're not eligible to vote in the primary. How would same day registration, a same-day registration was enacted? How would that impact folks who show up on election day of a primary to be able to cast their ballot in that in that election? Great question. ultimately happen is all of the barriers that are currently in place would be eliminated. So, ultimately, what what happens is when I go on that same day, whatever day it is, September 13th, if I go to vote, I won't have to worry about all of these impediments that are in the way right now. I can show my license or a piece of mail to prove that I am who I am. I can register and I can vote then and there and Commissioner All Becks who is my illustrious constituent. Please help me that I gave the proper information. To my understanding, you can change your primary, excuse me, you can change your political affiliation four weeks in advance. But please correct me if I'm wrong on that because I don't want to give out. Sure, sure, sure, no problem. Um the current, actually, our current requirement for our current primary assets situated in September. The the party changes deadline is actually earlier. It's actually the fourth Saturday in May. That's actually in code. Um so that is in fact, the party changed deadline. So, it is it is that period in advance. Um I think and the voter registration, current voter registration deadline is closer as you mentioned four weeks in advance of the party change actually is earlier. So, And that's in faith. To have the commissioner as your constituent. So even for even if same day registration I just want to make sure I'm clear on this even if we had same day registration. Folks would still need to be registered in their party on that other the the earlier May day in order to participate in the primary. Is that what you're saying? Um well that's you know as the as the code currently is. You know as the code currently reads. Certainly if there was if any sort of legislation were to change that provision and of course that could be revised. Mhm. And if it is a separate provision outside of of the registration deadline for general. Oh okay. Uh huh. Quarry change deadline is one of those things that's kind of defined. And it's interesting in in in Delaware law. And again I'm no attorney I pressed it by an arm with no decode. Is that that's one of those dates that are it's actually defined as a day. It's actually defined as a a a day. The fourth Saturday in May. Awesome. Thank you. So it sounds like we need to respond to another piece of legislation Senator, Pinkney, Senator Gay, and Representative Betts. I'm glad Representative Dorsey Walker. That's what I was thinking. I'm not. We'll be calling on you for your assistance to Alright, let me know. How many of my my co-facilitators here, if I missed any questions in the chat or in our Q&A, let me know. Otherwise, we're about to wind down coming to the end or any other final comments that that our panelists want to make before we wrap it up for the evening. Yeah. Dwayne, I, there was one question I thought would be great to answer because it's really about not only how folks vote but how we are communicating and working with voters and the question was kind of what are you doing to keep voters state or constituents up to date and I would just say that I know that a lot of a lot of legislators will send out mailers, they'll send out information to people in their constituents in the in their district. Um I just recently did that and it was fantastic way to connect with voters I. also know that I'm sure every single legislator on here communicates via Email and newsletter with constituents and I think that sometimes we kind of assume or at least I did before I was elected that my legislator knew how to get in touch with me and that's not always the case. Um and so I would just encourage anyone who wants to keep up with your legislator or someone in the in the general assembly who is working on an issue that matters to you. Um just look to see on their on the legislative website. There's a lot of links there if you want to sign up for newsletters. Uh kind of for each on the biography section. So look there. Um just email the legislator. Tell them that you're interested in keeping in touch. And I'm sure there's many ways for you to keep up to date on these really important voting issues and other issues that we're going to be working on in 2022. I have to say it's one of the things I love about being a Delawarean is that I have the personal cellphone numbers of so many senators, state senators and representatives. I'm sure Senator Gay sometimes regrets that she ever gave me her cellphone number but I appreciate it immensely. So, thank you for being so. I'll please a fifth on that one, Dwayne. Okay, alright. Should know better. Um alright, any final points or questions that we've not yet answered? Right, this is the time where we want to hear from you, our participants. We still have 7-1 folks who've stuck on to the end on this Monday evening that got dark very early. Uh thank you all so much for joining us. I did have one question about drop boxes in Delaware that I that I didn't get a chance to address but we'll make sure that we get more information about Dropboxes. I know Senator K has is working on some legislation to address that need in the state as well that will expand. If we have more voting mail perhaps. Um anyway, thank you all so much for participating. We need to hear from our 71 participants. We need to hear from you about how you plan to vote in 2022. Our legislators need to know what what it is that is going to make voting more accessible for you to make sure that you can exercise your democratic right to vote at the polls and so let us know. We have this form available to you. Imma put it here in the chat. We're going to put it in our Facebook links as well spread it far and wide. We want to hear your story about how will you vote in 2022. You have heard tonight from many of our leaders in the state that are working on expanding access for Delawareans to cast their ballot. There will be partners in this work with the Delaware Voting Rights Coalition and our you see on our our background here, all of our co organizations that are members of the Delaware Voting Rights Coalition. If you're a member of an organization that cares deeply about expanding the access to voting, please join our coalition and as we move forward and start working on these reforms. Thank you again. Appreciate everyone's participation. Have a wonderful evening and we'll see each other soon. Buh bye. Thank you everyone. Have a good evening.