Governor Carney signs Rehoboth voting charter changes into law

On Wednesday, March 27, 2019, Governor John Carney signed House Bill 34 into law. This legislation amends the Charter of the City of Rehoboth Beach relating to municipal elections and voting. This Act amends the Charter of the City of Rehoboth Beach to make Sections 3 through 7 gender-neutral, to provide travel reimbursement at the Internal Revenue Service rate rather than the Sussex County Sheriff’s rate, to reduce the ownership requirement for non-resident freeholders for voter eligibility from six months to thirty days, to make the City’s process to purge individuals from the Books of Registered Voters consistent with the State’s process at 15 Del. C §1704(g), to allow for voter registration up to thirty days prior to the Annual Municipal Election, to amend the definition of real property to include condominiums created under the Delaware Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, to reduce the durational residency requirement for voter eligibility from six months to thirty days, to define “domicile,” and to clarify that all voting provisions in the City Charter (including annual municipal elections, annexation elections, and borrowing and bond issuance elections) shall be construed in accordance with the principle of “one person, one vote,” and removes any form of artificial entity voting from annexation elections and borrowing and bond issuance elections. “I am very pleased to see this measure passed. These changes clarify the one person, one vote rule for all elections,” said Mayor Paul Kuhns.