Senate approves large package of technical corrections to Delaware Constitution

The Delaware Senate on March 25 passed House Bill 10, the second step in a project to make technical and stylistic corrections to the state constitution, including gender‑neutral language, standardized headings and spelling fixes.

Senator Sikkola and sponsor Senator Sikola brought the bill forward and described it as a collection of "technical corrections" identified by the General Assembly's Division of Legislative Services. Mark Catrona, Director of Legislative Services, addressed senators on the floor to explain why some constitution provisions remain unchanged: "There was a U.S. Supreme Court case in the 1960s that declared [certain county representation provisions] unconstitutional ... we create senate districts based on our population, not based on a set number per each county," Catrona said, answering a senator's question about unequal district allocations in the 1897 text.

Senator Richardson pressed for clarification about whether the constitution or subsequent federal rulings take precedence; Catrona said federal constitutional requirements control in the noted instance. Senators also discussed the distinction between purely stylistic edits—such as adding Oxford commas and removing hyphens—and substantive changes (for example, voting age or numbers of senators per county). Legislative staff described the work as months of staff time to review and standardize formatting and wording across roughly 38,000 words.

A roll call followed; the clerk recorded 21 yes votes and the bill was declared passed. Senators noted a plan to return later with proposals addressing substantive constitutional items that remain inconsistent with current federal law or practice.

The bill does not itself change substantive voting rules; it standardizes language, punctuation, headings and corrects misspellings. The sponsor said substantive constitutional changes will be considered separately.