republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/150/hb-346.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 15 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO VOTING BY MAIL FOR THE 2020 NON-PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY, GENERAL, AND SPECIAL ELECTIONS."
description: "This Act provides for voting by mail for the 2020 primary and general elections and special elections held under the provisions of Chapter 73 of Title 15 due to the emergency caused by COVID-19, a highly contagious virus. Voting by mail is an alternative to, and not a replacement for, in-person voting, which remains an available option to those electors not voting by absentee or mail ballot. This Act establishes procedures for voting by mail which mirror the procedures for absentee voting. The Act makes clear that, like in absentee voting, no ballots can be tabulated until Election Day. The authority to implement voting by mail stems from the Delaware Constitution. Article XVII of the Delaware Constitution mandates that in order to insure continuity of State and local governmental operations in periods of an emergency resulting from disease, the General Assembly shall have the power and immediate duty to adopt measures that may be necessary and proper for insuring the continuity of governmental operations including nonconformity with the requirements of the Constitution when in the judgment of the General Assembly to do so would be impracticable."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "150"
identifier: "HB 346"
citation: "Delaware HB 346 (150)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bryan Townsend", "David B. McBride", "Gerald L. Brady", "John \"Jack\" Walsh", "John L. Mitchell", "Nicole Poore", "Peter C. Schwartzkopf", "Valerie Longhurst"]
version_count: 2
action_count: 20
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2020-06-12"
last_action: "2020-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/89166e47-1329-420e-a53a-b4c417559e6e"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=48136"
source_hash: "5a782a009c215b7b45b5d098dd0e2d7b68923a50393042a54f5811caa03330a4"
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 346 (150) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 15 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO VOTING BY MAIL FOR THE 2020 NON-PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY, GENERAL, AND SPECIAL ELECTIONS.

This Act provides for voting by mail for the 2020 primary and general elections and special elections held under the provisions of Chapter 73 of Title 15 due to the emergency caused by COVID-19, a highly contagious virus. Voting by mail is an alternative to, and not a replacement for, in-person voting, which remains an available option to those electors not voting by absentee or mail ballot. This Act establishes procedures for voting by mail which mirror the procedures for absentee voting. The Act makes clear that, like in absentee voting, no ballots can be tabulated until Election Day. The authority to implement voting by mail stems from the Delaware Constitution. Article XVII of the Delaware Constitution mandates that in order to insure continuity of State and local governmental operations in periods of an emergency resulting from disease, the General Assembly shall have the power and immediate duty to adopt measures that may be necessary and proper for insuring the continuity of governmental operations including nonconformity with the requirements of the Constitution when in the judgment of the General Assembly to do so would be impracticable.

## 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=48136&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB346)
2. **HA 5 to HB 346** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=48162&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)

## Votes

- SM — **25–13** (pass) · lower
- SM — **18–3** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Bryan Townsend — primary (person)
- David B. McBride — primary (person)
- Gerald L. Brady — primary (person)
- John "Jack" Walsh — primary (person)
- John L. Mitchell — primary (person)
- Nicole Poore — primary (person)
- Peter C. Schwartzkopf — primary (person)
- Valerie Longhurst — primary (person)
- Andria L. Bennett — cosponsor (person)
- Bruce C. Ennis — cosponsor (person)
- Darius J. Brown — cosponsor (person)
- David Bentz — cosponsor (person)
- David P. Sokola — cosponsor (person)
- Debra Heffernan — cosponsor (person)
- Earl G. Jaques Jr. — cosponsor (person)
- Edward S. Osienski — cosponsor (person)
- Franklin D. Cooke — cosponsor (person)
- Harris B. McDowell — cosponsor (person)
- John A. Kowalko — cosponsor (person)
- John J. Viola — cosponsor (person)
- Kendra Johnson — cosponsor (person)
- Kimberly Williams — cosponsor (person)
- Krista Griffith — cosponsor (person)
- Laura V. Sturgeon — cosponsor (person)
- Melissa Minor-Brown — cosponsor (person)
- Nnamdi O. Chukwuocha — cosponsor (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)
- Quinton Johnson — cosponsor (person)
- Raymond Seigfried — cosponsor (person)
- S. Elizabeth Lockman — cosponsor (person)
- Sean M. Lynn — cosponsor (person)
- Sean Matthews — cosponsor (person)
- Sherry Dorsey Walker — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie T. Bolden — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie L. Hansen — cosponsor (person)
- Trey Paradee — cosponsor (person)
- William Bush — cosponsor (person)
- William J. Carson — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2020-06-12** Introduced and Assigned to Administration Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2020-06-16** Amendment HA 1 to HB 346 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2020-06-16** Amendment HA 2 to HB 346 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2020-06-17** Amendment HA 3 to HB 346 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2020-06-17** Amendment HA 4 to HB 346 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2020-06-18** Amendment HA 1 to HB 346 - Defeated By House. Votes: 14 YES 27 NO `amendment-failure`
- **2020-06-18** Amendment HA 2 to HB 346 - Defeated By House. Votes: 15 YES 25 NO 1 ABSENT `amendment-failure`
- **2020-06-18** Amendment HA 3 to HB 346 - Defeated By House. Votes: 16 YES 25 NO `amendment-failure`
- **2020-06-18** Amendment HA 5 to HB 346 - Passed By House. Votes: 40 YES 1 ABSENT `amendment-passage`
- **2020-06-18** Suspension of Rules in House
- **2020-06-18** Passed By House. Votes: 25 YES 13 NO 2 NOT VOTING 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2020-06-24** Amendment SA 2 to HB 346 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2020-06-24** Amendment SA 3 to HB 346 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2020-06-24** Amendment SA 1 to HB 346 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2020-06-25** Suspension of Rules in Senate
- **2020-06-25** Amendment SA 1 to HB 346 - Defeated By Senate. Votes: 8 YES 13 NO `amendment-failure`
- **2020-06-25** Amendment SA 2 to HB 346 - Defeated By Senate. Votes: 8 YES 13 NO `amendment-failure`
- **2020-06-25** Amendment SA 3 to HB 346 - Defeated By Senate. Votes: 8 YES 13 NO `amendment-failure`
- **2020-06-25** Passed By Senate. Votes: 18 YES 3 NO `passage`
- **2020-07-01** 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/89166e47-1329-420e-a53a-b4c417559e6e`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).