Delaware’s Department of Elections approves a plan from New Castle County’s Elections Department for new election districts and polling places.
The New Castle County Elections Department is changing 28 polling locations across the county.
New Castle County Elections Director Tracey Dixon says after redistricting, there were locations where voter concentration was miscalculated – so some locations had a much larger or smaller turnout than expected.
“Our proposal to change some polling places to rebalance voter concentration so that not one polling place is more overloaded than another, just so our voters will have a better experience, shorter wait times, better accessibility, and just closer in proximity to where they live,” DIxon says.
Dixon says they are eliminating five polling locations that saw low voter turnout or ineffective use of resources. She adds they need around 2,000 election officers for each election, but it’s challenging to fill all of those positions. Consolidating districts will alleviate some of that pressure.
“Consolidating some of those low voter registration total locations to another one makes us able to man our polling places better," Dixon says. "So we don’t have eight election officers sitting there waiting for 50 people to vote, while we have another 12 that are overwhelmed.”
Dixon notes they are replacing one location, St. Catherine of Siena Church, that could no longer support a polling place due to staffing issues, with the Greenbank Church of Christ, a mile and a half away.
And in the 7th Representative District, Voter District 6 at River Club Apartments will be split to create a new Voter District 14, which will vote at the apartments while District 6 moves to Maple Lane Elementary School.
Voters affected will receive a new polling place card in the mail, which Dixon says they expect to be sent out within the next 30 to 60 days.
