Delaware and Virginia Governors Sign Voting Rights Legislation Around 61st Anniversary of Federal Act

Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer signed House Bill 444, the Delaware John Lewis Voting Rights Act, at Shiloh Baptist Church in Wilmington, Delaware, on the 61st anniversary of the federal Voting Rights Act's 1965 signing. Separately, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger joined an event in Norfolk, Virginia, on the same anniversary and signed a series of bills addressing voting rights, voter protections, and election security. Delaware's House Bill 444 was passed by the state's 153rd General Assembly on the final night of its session, according to the Delaware House Republican Caucus, and establishes state-level voting rights protections. The Virginia event also marked the 60th anniversary of Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down poll taxes. A pastor at the Delaware signing said the new law responds to a weakening of federal voting protections nationally, though the specifics of that claim were not detailed in available reporting. The Delaware General Assembly also left eight proposed constitutional amendments pending for future legislative consideration, and Gov. Meyer issued a separate executive order creating a state surgeon general position, making Delaware the seventh state with that office; this action is unrelated to the voting rights law but occurred during the same legislative session. The specific provisions of Virginia's signed election-security bills, and further details on Delaware's voting rights protections beyond their existence, were not corroborated across multiple sources and remain unspecified in current reporting.