republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/152/hb-141.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLES 11 AND 15 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CRIMINAL HISTORY BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR CANDIDATES FOR STATE AND COUNTY PUBLIC OFFICE."
description: "This Act requires all candidates for statewide office, the General Assembly, and all elected county offices, to request a criminal history background check, no later than the filing deadline, from the State Bureau of Identification. The State Bureau of Identification must, within 10 days of receipt of the request, provide the Commissioner of Elections with a report of the candidate’s criminal history or a statement that the Bureau’s Repository contains no information relating to the candidate. The Commissioner of Elections must then determine if the candidate is qualified under Section 21 of Article II of the Delaware Constitution to be considered a candidate and have their name appear on the ballot. The candidate will be considered a provisional candidate until the Commissioner of Elections determines the candidate is qualified. The information obtained by the Commissioner of Elections, from the Bureau, will not fall under the definition of public record in Chapter 100 of Title 29. The candidate must pay the cost of the criminal history background check, but the cost may be reimbursed from the candidate’s campaign funds as an authorized campaign expenditure. This Act will take effect January 1 after enactment."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "152"
identifier: "HB 141"
citation: "Delaware HB 141 (152)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Brian Pettyjohn", "David L. Wilson", "Eric Morrison", "Kendra Johnson", "Lyndon D. Yearick", "Michael F. Smith", "Michael Ramone", "Paul S. Baumbach", "Peter C. Schwartzkopf", "Ruth Briggs King", "Sean Matthews", "William Bush"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 11
vote_count: 3
first_action: "2023-05-09"
last_action: "2023-08-31"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/518e3182-0f9d-4de8-ba7a-10f3a81e0807"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=130331"
source_hash: "f434847f9887eef50cb5f64dc844b368b9b68b220846144cbae6dffd73eeabdb"
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 141 (152) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLES 11 AND 15 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CRIMINAL HISTORY BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR CANDIDATES FOR STATE AND COUNTY PUBLIC OFFICE.

This Act requires all candidates for statewide office, the General Assembly, and all elected county offices, to request a criminal history background check, no later than the filing deadline, from the State Bureau of Identification. The State Bureau of Identification must, within 10 days of receipt of the request, provide the Commissioner of Elections with a report of the candidate’s criminal history or a statement that the Bureau’s Repository contains no information relating to the candidate. The Commissioner of Elections must then determine if the candidate is qualified under Section 21 of Article II of the Delaware Constitution to be considered a candidate and have their name appear on the ballot. The candidate will be considered a provisional candidate until the Commissioner of Elections determines the candidate is qualified. The information obtained by the Commissioner of Elections, from the Bureau, will not fall under the definition of public record in Chapter 100 of Title 29. The candidate must pay the cost of the criminal history background check, but the cost may be reimbursed from the candidate’s campaign funds as an authorized campaign expenditure. This Act will take effect January 1 after enactment.

## 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=130331&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB141)
2. **HA 1 to HB 141** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=140545&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)
3. **SA 1 to HB 141** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=140756&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)

## Votes

- SM — **40–0** (pass) · lower
- SM — **25–7** (pass) · lower
- SM — **19–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Brian Pettyjohn — primary (person)
- David L. Wilson — primary (person)
- Eric Morrison — primary (person)
- Kendra Johnson — primary (person)
- Lyndon D. Yearick — primary (person)
- Michael F. Smith — primary (person)
- Michael Ramone — primary (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — primary (person)
- Peter C. Schwartzkopf — primary (person)
- Ruth Briggs King — primary (person)
- Sean Matthews — primary (person)
- William Bush — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2023-05-09** Introduced and Assigned to Administration Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2023-05-17** Reported Out of Committee (Administration) in House with 5 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2023-06-08** Amendment HA 1 to HB 141 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2023-06-08** Passed By House. Votes: 25 YES 7 NO 8 NOT VOTING 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2023-06-08** Assigned to Elections & Government Affairs Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2023-06-21** Reported Out of Committee (Elections & Government Affairs) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2023-06-28** Amendment SA 1 to HB 141 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2023-06-28** Amendment SA 1 to HB 141 - Passed By Senate. Votes: 19 YES 2 ABSENT `amendment-passage`
- **2023-06-28** Passed By Senate. Votes: 19 YES 2 ABSENT `passage`
- **2023-06-30** Passed By House. Votes: 40 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2023-08-31** 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/518e3182-0f9d-4de8-ba7a-10f3a81e0807`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).