Confusion is growing in Rehoboth Beach over what the proposed charter changes really mean, given that the current draft extends voting rights in our municipal elections to hundreds of corporations, partnerships and LLCs, where up to two votes per entity could nearly double our voting rolls.
But I see another issue, one central to our democracy. We tend to gloss over the fact that our residents have constitutional protection of their voting rights. We should make a clear distinction in granting any rights to nonresidents. The fact is, we already have voters who own property through corporate structures. We have voters with property in different types of trusts. We have voters who rent. What they all have in common is that they are domiciled, bona fide residents.
Our current processes use the same requirements for residents and nonresidents. Fortunately, the state stepped in last year and declared that residents now only have to live in town 30 days before elections. But we still require even residents to register in person at city hall during business hours, even if they are already registered with the state, and we kick them off the voter rolls if they don't vote in two elections. Every year, residents find out they are not in the voter list when they thought they were, or they mistakenly believe that they can't vote because of the type of property ownership.
Because residents have constitutional rights that nonresidents do not have, we need separate books of registered voters and separate processes. Other towns, including those with nonresident voting, automatically register their bona fide residents. We need to make it clear that these residents are entitled to vote regardless of land ownership. As it is now, we don't make it easy for them.
The current proposal to add artificial entities to the voting rolls only makes the matter worse. There are nearly 600 artificial entities (not counting trusts) in the city, most of which are business property owners such as commercial landlords, developers, realtors, and owners of investment property who do not live in town and do not even own a residence in town that they occupy on a part-time basis!
Voting is a cornerstone of our democracy and I fully support efforts to reduce obstacles to registration and non-purging to assure this basic right for our residents. After all, they must live every day with the laws our local government makes.
Giving a voice in our government to nonresident property owners is a progressive voting policy that we have had for many years. It's a privilege not given in 99.995 percent of municipalities in the U.S. But, the issues pertaining to rules and process for bonafide residents should be resolved before any rights are extended to artificial entities. Each new category of enfranchised nonresident voter dilutes the votes of residents and must be carefully studied and debated.
Meanwhile, let's find a way to put all of our residents on the voting rolls.
Susan Gay
Rehoboth Beach
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