Polls see long lines of early voters on day one; no new surveys are coming

Early voting turnout in Delaware has been staggering. On Friday, lines of more than two and a half hours formed around the polling stations designated for early voting, and similar scenes are expected on Saturday.

According to the Delaware Department of Elections, more than 27,000 people cast their ballots on the first day of early voting on Friday. That figure is about half of the total early votes in the entire 2022 early voting period.

MORE ABOUT FRIDAY’S PARTICIPATION: Delaware voters are heading to the polls in potentially record numbers on the first day of early voting.

Of course, this election includes a presidential race. Cathleen Hartsky-Carter, community relations officer for the Department of Elections, said they did not expect this level of participation.

“I don’t know if we thought we were going to have this many people on the first day of early voting, but we’re excited to see it,” he said.

At Newark’s early voting site, the Hudson State Service Center, voters near the front of the line called for more polling places to open. However, there are no plans to open more early voting sites. Opening early voting sites is a challenge, according to Hartsky-Carter, because you have to find a public location that is willing to host voting for 10 days before the election.

ELECTION 2024: Check out our voter guide

State law requires the state Department of Elections to open one early voting site in each county and one site in Wilmington.

“We saw the popularity in 2022 and we wanted to be very sure that we had enough early voting sites, so we did much more than the law dictated,” Hartsky-Carter said.

He said there are a limited number of machines programmed for early voting, and that there are more voting machines certified for use on Election Day, when the number of open voting sites increases from 19 to 532.

Hartsky-Carter said voters should be patient as they wait in line Saturday at one of six sites in New Castle County, four sites in Kent County and nine sites in Sussex County.

“Everyone in line has been very respectful and deferential to our election officials, and our election officials are doing a great job handling the number of voters coming in,” he said.

Where can I vote early in Delaware?

From Saturday, October 26 to Tuesday, October 29, polling stations are open from 11 am to 7 pm From Wednesday, October 30 to Sunday, November 3, polling stations open at 7 am and close at the same time as previous days .

According to the Delaware Department of Elections website, there are six locations open for early voting in New Castle County: