Delaware has always permitted fusion, the ability of two different political parties to jointly nominate the same person. A bill to abolish fusion was passed by the Delaware House in January 2011. That bill, HB 11, will be heard in the Senate Administrative Services & Elections Committee during the week of March 21-25. The exact date hasn’t been set yet.

The bill is worded very broadly. It makes it illegal for a party to nominate a non-member. That prohibition is so broad, it seems to run afoul of the U.S. Supreme Court decision Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut, which said that if a state ever told a political party that it couldn’t nominate a non-member, that prohibition would violate the party’s associational rights.

Several minor political parties in Delaware are working against the bill.