---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 15 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ABSENTEE VOTING IN MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS."
description: "This amendment removes the notary requirement for requests for absentee ballots in municipal elections."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "HB 403"
citation: "Delaware HB 403 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bruce C. Ennis", "Lyndon D. Yearick", "Paul S. Baumbach"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 7
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2018-05-08"
last_action: "2018-09-04"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/509b124a-33d7-4728-85b9-4c27fe93a5db"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=26638"
source_hash: "5721a7b79a020d9f9551521f3ba5959072fe4b5c3e5f3df5ce7bdabc0fd34811"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
---

# Delaware HB 403 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 15 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ABSENTEE VOTING IN MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.

This amendment removes the notary requirement for requests for absentee ballots in municipal elections.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=26638&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB403)

## Votes

- SM — **35–0** (pass) · lower
- SM — **21–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Bruce C. Ennis — primary (person)
- Lyndon D. Yearick — primary (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — primary (person)
- Daniel B. Short — cosponsor (person)
- David P. Sokola — cosponsor (person)
- Deborah Hudson — cosponsor (person)
- Gerald L. Brady — cosponsor (person)
- John J. Viola — cosponsor (person)
- John L. Mitchell — cosponsor (person)
- Joseph E. Miro — cosponsor (person)
- Kevin S Hensley — cosponsor (person)
- Ruth Briggs King — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-05-08** Introduced and Assigned to Administration Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-05-30** Amendment HA 1 to HB 403 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2018-06-06** Reported Out of Committee (Administration) in House with 1 Favorable, 4 On Its Merits `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2018-06-30** Passed By House. Votes: 35 YES 6 ABSENT `passage`
- **2018-07-01** Suspension of Rules in Senate
- **2018-07-01** Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES `passage`
- **2018-09-04** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/509b124a-33d7-4728-85b9-4c27fe93a5db`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).