Election officials say Del. primary was a learning experience

GEORGETOWN, Del. – Sussex County election officials say that Tuesday’s primary voting process went pretty smoothly. “There was no hiccups. Everything worked the way it was supposed to, and I think that’s just the way it’s going to be for the future,” said Sussex County Department of Elections Director Bo McDowell.

McDowell says that in-person voter turnout was lower than in years past. But surprisingly enough he says that in Sussex County, more people cast their ballots at polling locations than by vote by mail. “It was less than usual due to the high turnout for absentees and vote by mail. For Sussex County it was 26,000 that turned out in person,” said McDowell.

McDowell says that the largest demographic of in-person voters represented was between the ages of 55 and 74, and Republicans. “I just think there’s more interest basically. There was more controversy and heated races there,” said McDowell.

McDowell tells 47ABC that the process was a learning experience. “We do have new machinery and we’re training on those now, and that’s going to increase our capacity greatly. So we’ll be able to deal with the huge volume that we are expecting,” said McDowell.

McDowell says that in total, more than 21,000 voters cast their ballot by vote by mail – which is a record for Sussex County. He says that because of this, vote counts went on longer than expected. But the unofficial results are going to be certified at 10 a.m. on Friday. McDowell says the certification process is open to any member of the public interested in learning how it works.