---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND THE CHARTER OF THE TOWN OF LAUREL RELATING TO THE QUALIFICATIONS FOR MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCILMAN AND THE MANNER OF HOLDING BIANNUAL MUNICIPAL ELECTION."
description: "This Act amends the Charter of the Town of Laurel to include in the qualifications for Mayor and Town Councilman, that candidates must be non-delinquent tax payers of all capitation and property taxes of the Town of Laurel for at least 1 year next preceding election; and to eliminate the need for residents to register separately with the Town of Laurel and the Town will utilize the State of Delaware Department of Elections Voter Registration Rolls."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "151"
identifier: "HB 137"
citation: "Delaware HB 137 (151)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bryant L. Richardson", "Timothy D. Dukes"]
version_count: 2
action_count: 9
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2021-03-26"
last_action: "2021-09-17"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/91ca837e-34eb-47fc-9651-f8881a41142c"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=48514"
source_hash: "f670a8c44d9751eb4955e1e1f55ad5a9088be3712a90f71c1d45adc2a662bcd1"
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 137 (151) — AN ACT TO AMEND THE CHARTER OF THE TOWN OF LAUREL RELATING TO THE QUALIFICATIONS FOR MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCILMAN AND THE MANNER OF HOLDING BIANNUAL MUNICIPAL ELECTION.

This Act amends the Charter of the Town of Laurel to include in the qualifications for Mayor and Town Councilman, that candidates must be non-delinquent tax payers of all capitation and property taxes of the Town of Laurel for at least 1 year next preceding election; and to eliminate the need for residents to register separately with the Town of Laurel and the Town will utilize the State of Delaware Department of Elections Voter Registration Rolls.

## 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=48514&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB137)
2. **HA 1 to HB 137** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=58588&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)

## Votes

- 2/3 — **40–0** (pass) · lower
- 2/3 — **21–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Bryant L. Richardson — primary (person)
- Timothy D. Dukes — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-03-26** Introduced and Assigned to Administration Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2021-04-20** Amendment HA 1 to HB 137 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2021-04-27** Reported Out of Committee (Administration) in House with 3 Favorable, 1 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-05-13** Amendment HA 1 to HB 137 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2021-05-13** Passed By House. Votes: 40 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2021-05-13** Assigned to Elections & Government Affairs Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2021-05-19** Reported Out of Committee (Elections & Government Affairs) in Senate with 1 Favorable, 5 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-06-30** Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES `passage`
- **2021-09-17** 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/91ca837e-34eb-47fc-9651-f8881a41142c`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).