Council advances constitutional technical corrections amendment to fix drafting issues from prior amendments

The Delaware Legislative Council voted to advance a draft constitutional technical corrections amendment intended to fix 11 minor drafting issues that arose during the incorporation of recent constitutional amendments.

Mark Catrona, director of the Division of Legislative Services, told the council staff identified several instances where language from House Bill 10 and Senate Bill 15 did not merge cleanly into Article III, Section 10, producing inconsistencies and minor drafting errors. He said the draft before the council would correct those sections and add a limited mechanism allowing a future single General Assembly amendment to make narrowly defined technical corrections with a three-quarter supermajority vote.

“Many of these errors were ones that the code revisers would be able to fix without a technical correction bill if they had been found in the Delaware code,” Catrona said. “However, the code revisers do not have any revising power over the constitution, and so these need to be made by constitutional amendment.”

Council members had no questions and a motion and second were recorded. A roll call recorded 9 yes, 1 absent; the motion to proceed with the draft passed and staff were instructed to complete the drafting and filing process for the proposed constitutional amendment.

The action does not itself enact the amendment; it advances staff work to prepare formal materials and next steps required for constitutional amendment processes.