Why Should Delaware Care?
Voters are heading to the polls now for early voting ahead of a consequential election that will decide the next governor, U.S. senator and representative, lieutenant governor and Wilmington mayor, among other positions. A newly identified error in the state’s automatic voter registration process may cause frustrations for an estimated 750 people when they go to vote.
The Delaware Department of Elections said Wednesday that state officials placed 750 voters who had registered in the past year through an automatic voter registration system into the wrong political party.
The error has caused a surge of criticism since last week when early voting began, particularly in Wilmington. On Tuesday, a government transparency organization sent a letter to the state, seeking answers about why a “glitch” appeared to exist within the Division of Motor Vehicles’ new automatic voter registration system.
The organization, called the Delaware Coalition for Open Government, said voters had been removed from the rolls of registered Democrats, citing an example of two women who had registered to vote in April who were told by poll workers last week that their registrations showed them belonging only to an “other” party.
The two voters then traveled to a nearby elections department office in New Castle County, where officials said their situations were a result of a “glitch in the Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) motor voter registration system,” the letter asserted.
“The two young women had their voter registration cards updated and were then allowed to vote,” the letter stated.
In an initial emailed response Wednesday to questions from Spotlight Delaware, the Department of Elections asserted that a clerical error, rather than a computer glitch, was the cause of the problem.
Department of Elections spokeswoman Cathleen Carter said officials had identified “a very limited number“ of voters who were impacted by the problem, which she said involved the processing of automatic voter registration information.
Pressed in a follow-up email for the number of party registrations that are in error, Carter said officials estimated that 750 voters were impacted “by these mistypes.”
“The Department has a number of regular quality control checks to identify any records that may contain any errors,” she said, adding that party affiliation “will be added to those checks from this point forward.”
Carter further stated that officials believe the errors were unintentional and were made by multiple state workers.
She said the elections department is correcting the errors, providing staff at polling places with the names of impacted voters, and claimed that none of them have “been turned away due to this issue.”
But Spotlight Delaware has spoken with two voters who say they have been turned away from the polls, and therefore prevented from voting in the consequential Democratic primary election, which features tight races for governor, New Castle County executive and mayor of Wilmington.
Wait until November?
On Wednesday afternoon, Spotlight Delaware was speaking with voters outside a polling site at the Wilmington Police Athletic League when Patricia Miller stepped out of the building, unable to vote in the primary.
Miller said she and her husband grew up in Delaware, but moved to Georgia in 2016. When she came back in 2023, she got a new Delaware license. But at the polls, her license came back as “ineligible.”
She had no party affiliation, despite having registered as a Democrat online after getting her license. In the polling place, she said an election official made a call and she got a form to fix her registration, and that she’d be able to vote in the general election.
Miller was not informed that she may still be able to vote in the primary, she said.
Her account is similar to a situation Shirlondia Fountain says she faced last week when poll workers in Wilmington said their records showed her as a registered independent.
Fountain said she had told them she voted as a Democrat in 2023 and in previous years. Since that time, she said had not changed her voter registration, nor has she had to renew her driver’s license, she said.
Still, her appeals did not win her a ballot.
“They told me that I can’t vote until November. They didn’t give me nothing to let me vote or anything. So I just left,” she said.
Advocates raise concerns
It is unclear if the problems as stated by officials will impact any election going forward.
Still, some already fear a wider problem – one that could escalate when a flood of voters go to the polls on Primary Election Day, next Tuesday, Sept. 10.
Supporters of Wilmington mayoral candidate Velda Jones-Potter have been publicizing what they say are several problematic cases in Delaware’s largest city of people who poll workers have claimed aren’t Democrats, even though they had registered as such.
The Rev. Derrick Johnson, who participated in a “Souls to the Polls” event Wednesday, raised concerns with the registration error and its potential impact on the heated elections. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY NICK STONESIFER
At a get-out-the-vote rally in Wilmington on Wednesday, the Rev. Derrick Johnson, who supports Jones-Potter, said he had been visiting the Wilmington Police Athletic League polling location daily since early voting began last week.
In a speech to the crowd, he indicated that he believed the problem is massive in Wilmington alone. He also questioned why the Department of Elections has not yet published a press release alerting voters that these problems exist.
Nearly a year ago, Delaware elections officials launched a program with the state DMV that automatically placed new drivers onto the rolls of Delaware voters, who didn’t otherwise register proactively. The automated system then sends a letter to the new voter, which can be filled out and returned with an indication of a preferred party.
There were roughly 6,500 more registered voters in Delaware at the end of May than six months earlier, a boost that has been attributed to the new automated system.
A press release sent out by the state last year about the new system said newly registered voters can “choose a political party through the day of the first primary election following their automatic voter registration at DMV in order to vote in that primary election.”
What to do if you’re affected
In her emailed statement, Carter, the elections department spokeswoman, said voters who have registered through the new automated system should check their own voter registration and voting record on the State’s online portal, https://ivote.de.gov.
“Voters with questions about their eligibility to vote in the 2024 State Primary Election may call or email their county elections office for more information,” she said.
To contact the elections department, voters in New Castle County should call (302) 577-3464 or email votencc@delaware.gov.
In Kent County, voters should call (302) 739-4498 or email votekc@delaware.gov.
And in Sussex County, voters should call (302) 856-5367 or votesc@delaware.gov.
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