What you need to know before Delaware’s Primary Elections
Delaware Primary Election Information
DELAWARE – Delaware’s primary elections are quickly approaching, but there’s a lot that voters need to know ahead of time, so 47ABC sat down with the Sussex County’s Department of Elections to break it all down.
Ken McDowell, the Director at the Sussex County Department of Elections Office started by saying, “To vote in the primaries, you gotta be an R or a D.”
Primary elections are a chance for voters across the state of Delaware to select who will represent their party in the general election.
McDowell said,”It gives you a chance as a person to make a decision for your party.”
If you are not registered to vote, you can visit your local board of elections, fill out a form and register.
If you’re not sure whether you’re registered or not, you can log on to Ivote.DE.gov to check or you can look to see if you were mailed an index card indicating that you are registered.
If you aren’t able to make it to your polling place on election day for whatever reason, you are encouraged to pay a visit to your local department of elections where you can fill out a request for an absentee ballot, and vote right there on the spot.
Renee Cahill, a Lewes local did just that on Tuesday. She said, “It’s a really important primary, and I’m traveling, so I came down to the office today to fill out my absentee ballot. It was important for me to get it done today, I could’ve done it online, but I was in the area and it was so, so easy.”
If you plan on voting on election day, all you are encouraged to do is do some research on your candidates, check your polling place’s location and hours ahead of time, and be prepared to arrive with your ID.
McDowell said, “Polls open 7AM to 8PM all day, there’s no lunch break in that. They will be there all day and it’s just exactly like the general election as far as what to expect.”
Delaware’s primary election day will be taking place on September 6th.
As for the general election, that will be taking place on November 6th.
If you show up to the wrong polling location on election day, there’s no need to worry. You can simply approach the fail safe table and they will direct you to where you need to go.
Just a reminder for Independents, both parties host closed primaries in the state of Delaware, which means that voters registered as Independents won’t be able to participate.
For a look at the candidates you can visit the following link: https://elections.delaware.gov/
