Position Papers

Position Papers

What is a Position?

The League of Women Voters takes action on an issue only when we have a position addressing that particular issue. Members must study and come to a consensus on an issue, in order to form a position. This thorough grassroots process ensures that our advocacy is well considered by a broad range of people, understood by our members, and we have a sense of the political environment.

LWVDE Position Papers

Based on state and/or national League policy positions, the Advocacy Corps has prepared a set of Position Papers on specific bills or current issues. Members deliver folders with these papers to the office of every legislator on the afternoon of League Day and they are used throughout the year as we advocate at public hearings, write letters to the editor, and take other actions to support our positions.

View the papers on each topic by clicking on the header below. Check back later as we update these and post additional papers.

152nd General Assembly (2022-2024)

      • The death penalty is fundamentally unjust and should be stricken from Delaware Code.

151st General Assembly (2020-2022)

      • Unlimited spending unfairly affects election outcomes.
      • Members of Congress are forced to spend countless hours raising money for their next campaign.
      • The U.S. Constitution needs to be amended to give states the power to regulate campaign spending.
      • Funding for Grants-in-Aid is considerable
      • A joint legislative committee would provide needed oversight
      • Delaware's current primary date is too close to the date of the General Election
      • Few states have a primary date as late as ours
      • The LWVDE supports HB 30, which will change the primary date
      • Last-minute issues can prevent voters from getting to the polls on voting day
      • Currently, absentee voting requirements are specified in Delaware's Constitution
      • LWVDE supports HB 15, which takes this issue out of the Constitution so that the General Assembly can regulate it via legislation
      • Changes in citizens' circumstances can disenfranchise them by causing them to miss current deadlines to register to vote
      • Same-day registration has worked successfully in many states
      • LWVDE supports HB 25, which will allow for same-day registration 

150th General Assembly

      • Increases voter access and participation
      • Potentially reduces costs
      • Security fears are unfounded
Absentee Voting HB 73
      • the first leg of a Constitution amendment
      • passed by the House
      • released from the Senate Committee in 2019
      • continue to ensure sufficient votes for Senate passage in 2020.
      • support legislation to repair existing and prevent any new contamination by funding water supply systems, sewage systems, and water treatment processing facilities.
      • HB 200 was released from the Natural Resources Committee in the House in 201
      • held in the House Appropriations Committee for failure to specify an adequate source of funding
Early Voting (2019)
      • HB 38 was introduced on January 16, 2019
      • signed by the Governor on June 30, 2019
      • provides for 10 days of early voting including the Saturday and Sunday before election day\effective in 2022.
      • current equalization formula results in inequity
      • no consideration of poverty or the number of students needing ESL
      • property assessments have not updated for decades in all three counties
      • support adoption of a Homeless Bill of Rights
      • no bill introduced in the current legislative session
LLC Voting (2019)
      • LWV position
        • only citizens should be allowed to vote in municipal elections
        • every municipality should, at a minimum, allow any resident citizen who is state registered to cast a vote in municipal elections
        • seeking legislators to sponsor a bill that would
          • prohibit voting by LLC's in municipal elections
          • require the use of the state registration system
          • voters in municipal elections would not need to register at the town hall
      • supported the NPVIC
      • enacted in Delaware on March 28, 2019
      • persistent attention to energy efficiency and,
      • adoption of new technologies for the production of renewable energy
      • help Delaware do its part in averting an existential global crisis
      • HB 39 passed the House
      • released from the Senate Committee in 2019
      • hope to secure Senate passage in 2020