Released: Mary 17, 2023
On Tuesday, May 16, Delaware County held a successful 2023 primary election with nearly 100,000 Delaware County-registered voters participating across all 49 municipalities.
Voters across the county cast ballots for Republican and Democratic candidates who were competing for their parties’ nominations in varied races, including contests for the statewide judicial positions, Delaware County District Attorney, Delaware County Council, and dozens of municipal contests in boroughs, townships, school boards and Chester City.
Additionally, Delaware County held two successful special elections due to vacancies in office, with voters in the 163rd State Representative District electing a new House Representative, and voters in Radnor Township’s 4th Ward electing a new Township Commissioner for their Ward.
The Elections Department anticipates that the total number of ballots will not exceed 100,000—which will be roughly 20,000 fewer than the approximately 120,000 ballots processed at the May 2022 Primary Election and significantly less than the nearly 253,000 ballots processed for the November 2022 General Election. Turnout for the odd-year election is typically lower as it does not feature Presidential or federal or state contests in all areas.
In all, over 26,000 vote-by-mail ballots have been processed, with approximately 73,000 Election Day ballots completed in-person at the polling places. Under the law, there are only small numbers of provisional ballots, late-arriving military/overseas ballots, and ID-verification ballots that may arrive and be added to the counts at this time.
“Elections staff worked to improve the processing of mailed ballots, the receiving of materials from our Judges of Election and drop boxes, and then the posting of results. They succeeded in making positive progress in every one of those areas,” said Delaware County Elections Director James P. Allen. “The staff also received important support on these fronts from poll workers and many county departments, especially Emergency Services, Personnel, Park Police, the Sheriff’s Department, Facilities, Information Technology and other executive offices,” adding “Most important was the hard work and dedication of our hundreds of Judges of Election and other poll workers who have learned the systems and provided valuable feedback from election to election.”
Delaware County Elections also was excited that the electronic Pollbook pilot program, which used tablet-like devices at three locations—in Upper Darby, Middletown and Brookhaven—was a success, with early feedback from both poll workers and voters extremely positive.
“Electronic poll books have been used for years in a number of counties, with great success,” said Director Allen. “They provide faster check in, consistent and clear guidance to the poll workers, and information to the voters who might show up in the wrong polling place. Most importantly, e-pollbooks help capture voter history in a few days, instead of several weeks, after an election.”
Delaware County Elections has unofficial totals of all Election Day and mail-in ballots that were qualified to be counted on Election Day on the Delco Votes! website at delcopa.gov/results.
Delaware County Elections will continue to post unofficial updates to the Delco Votes! website at delcopa.gov/results as the remaining ballots are adjudicated. The process will continue with small numbers of military/overseas ballots and provisional ballots. They will be added to the counts in the days after the May 23 deadline for receipt of military/overseas ballots.