Terms Used In Delaware Code > Title 5 > Chapter 7 > Subchapter IV - Powers and Prohibitions

• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Ballot: means those portions of cardboard, paper or other material to be placed within the ballot frames of a voting machine or to be used for absentee voting in order to list the names of the offices to be voted for, the name of each candidate and the designation of the party by which the candidate is nominated, a space for the voter to write in the name of any candidate of that voter's choice for any office, and the statement of any question submitted with provision for a "yes" or "no" vote. See Delaware Code Title 15 Sec. 101
• banks: when used in this chapter, do not include such national banks, except as otherwise provided in subchapters VI and VII of this chapter. See Delaware Code Title 5 Sec. 701
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Board: means a board of education of a reorganized school district. See Delaware Code Title 14 Sec. 1401
• Board: means that body of individuals appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate to serve or who otherwise serve as the State Board of Elections in accordance with Chapter 2 of this title, and are, as such, vested with the responsibility and power to see to the administration of the election laws of this State as more particularly defined in this title. See Delaware Code Title 15 Sec. 101
• Case law: The law as laid down in cases that have been decided in the decisions of the courts.
• Child: means a person who has not reached the age of 18 years. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Clerk: means clerk of election. See Delaware Code Title 15 Sec. 101
• Codicil: An addition, change, or supplement to a will executed with the same formalities required for the will itself.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• County committee: means the regularly organized and constituted county committee or governing authority of a political party. See Delaware Code Title 15 Sec. 101
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Department: means the State Department of Elections, consisting of the State Board of Elections and such staff as the Board shall appoint under this title, but shall not include the State Election Commissioner. See Delaware Code Title 15 Sec. 101
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• District: means a reorganized school district and the school district of the City of Wilmington. See Delaware Code Title 14 Sec. 1901
• dollars: means lawful money of the United States. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Election Management System: refers to the computer programs and databases managed by the State Election Commissioner and used by the State Election Commissioner and the Department of Elections to maintain voter registration records, to manage absentee voting, maintain election officer information, maintain polling place information, structure elections and for other purposes. See Delaware Code Title 15 Sec. 101
• Election officers: means the inspector of election, the 2 judges of election and the clerks of election who are appointed for each election district under § 4702 of this title. See Delaware Code Title 15 Sec. 101
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Executive session: A portion of the Senate's daily session in which it considers executive business.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Federal Reserve System: The central bank of the United States. The Fed, as it is commonly called, regulates the U.S. monetary and financial system. The Federal Reserve System is composed of a central governmental agency in Washington, D.C. (the Board of Governors) and twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks in major cities throughout the United States. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. ^{Source: OCC}
• Guarantor: A party who agrees to be responsible for the payment of another party's debts should that party default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Hazing: means any action or situation which recklessly or intentionally endangers the mental or physical health or safety of a student or which wilfully destroys or removes public or private property for the purpose of initiation or admission into or affiliation with, or as a condition for continued membership in, any organization operating under the sanction of or recognized as an organization by an institution of higher learning. See Delaware Code Title 14 Sec. 9302
• Inspector: means inspector of elections. See Delaware Code Title 15 Sec. 101
• Joint tenancy: A form of property ownership in which two or more parties hold an undivided interest in the same property that was conveyed under the same instrument at the same time. A joint tenant can sell his (her) interest but not dispose of it by will. Upon the death of a joint tenant, his (her) undivided interest is distributed among the surviving joint tenants.
• Judge: means judge of elections. See Delaware Code Title 15 Sec. 101
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Major political party: means any political party which, as of December 31 of the year immediately preceding any general election year, has registered in the name of that party voters equal to at least 5 percent of the total number of voters registered in the State. See Delaware Code Title 15 Sec. 101
• Minor political party: means any political party which does not qualify as a major political party. See Delaware Code Title 15 Sec. 101
• Month: means a calendar month, unless otherwise expressed. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• National Bank: A bank that is subject to the supervision of the Comptroller of the Currency. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department. A national bank can be recognized because it must have "national" or "national association" in its name. ^{Source: OCC}
• Nolo contendere: No contest-has the same effect as a plea of guilty, as far as the criminal sentence is concerned, but may not be considered as an admission of guilt for any other purpose.
• Oath: includes affirmation in all cases where an affirmation may be substituted for an oath, and "sworn" includes affirmed; and the forms shall be varied accordingly. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• political party: means any political organization which elects a state committee and officers of a state committee, by a state convention composed of delegates elected from each representative district in which the party has registered members, and which nominates candidates for electors of President and Vice-President, or nominates candidates for offices to be decided at the general election. See Delaware Code Title 15 Sec. 101
• President pro tempore: A constitutionally recognized officer of the Senate who presides over the chamber in the absence of the Vice President. The President Pro Tempore (or, "president for a time") is elected by the Senate and is, by custom, the Senator of the majority party with the longest record of continuous service.
• Primary election: means an election at which voters registered as members of a major political party may vote to determine the nominees of that political party for the general election. See Delaware Code Title 15 Sec. 101
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Question: means any proposition or other question to be submitted to the voters. See Delaware Code Title 15 Sec. 101
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• real property: is synonymous with the phrase "lands, tenements and hereditaments. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Registration record: means a voter's registration record maintained in the State's Election Management System, the list or file of registered voters sent to each election district for use by election officers on the day of the election, and until determined obsolete, it also applies to a voter's record maintained in the county master file. See Delaware Code Title 15 Sec. 101
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Remand: When an appellate court sends a case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
• School board: means a board of education of a reorganized school district and the Board of Education of the school district of the City of Wilmington. See Delaware Code Title 14 Sec. 1901
• school district: shall include all school districts, including vocational-technical school districts. See Delaware Code Title 14 Sec. 1801
• Signature: means both a written signature conforming to § 302(23) of Title 1 and a digital or electronic signature that is an electronic sound, symbol or process attached to or logically associated with a document and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the document as specified by the State Election Commissioner. See Delaware Code Title 15 Sec. 101
• State: means the State of Delaware; and when applied to different parts of the United States, it includes the District of Columbia and the several territories and possessions of the United States. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• State Board: consists of 9 members who are citizens of this State andappointed as follows:

  (1) The Governor shall appoint, with Senate confirmation, 7 voting members. See Delaware Code Title 14 Sec. 104

• State chair: means the highest executive officer of a political party of this State. See Delaware Code Title 15 Sec. 101
• State committee: means the regularly organized and constituted statewide governing authority of a political party in this State. See Delaware Code Title 15 Sec. 101
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subcommittee: means the Reports Appeals Subcommittee of the State Board of Elections. See Delaware Code Title 15 Sec. 101
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Teacher: means any certificated professional employee of a public school district. See Delaware Code Title 14 Sec. 1401
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: includes its territories and possessions and the District of Columbia. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Year: means a calendar year, and is equivalent to the words "year of our Lord. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302