SUSSEX COUNTY, Del. - The Sussex County Department of Elections has mailed 45,000 ballots and says it has only received 20,000 back. Director Kenneth "Bo" McDowell says about 700 to 1,000 ballots a day are placed in the dropbox outside of the office, but concerns over how fast a ballot can be mailed aren't the only reasons people may drop them off in person.
When Richard Harding of Ocean View and his wife received their mail-in ballots, the envelopes were already sealed. "We called the voting office and they said to just take a razor blade and cut it and put your ballot in there and seal it up with tape and put your initials on it," Harding says. Bo McDowell says when this happens, people can bring their ballot to the elections office or call to have their ballot voided and a new one sent. "Yup, that's one way to do it," says McDowell. "Some of the mail may have gotten rained on or something and it sealed the mailed envelope." McDowell says this happened to at least a handful of ballots. "How do they know I'm the one who put the tape on there and my initials don't say anything, so it just seems like that's a potential risk area, where the ballots can be improperly certified," Harding says. If people like Harding were to request a new ballot, they'd have until October 30th, 2020. and until noon on November 2nd, 2020 to request it in person. Ballots can be placed in the box outside of the elections office from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday. A 24-hour box is located on the backdoor to the Department of Elections Office in Georgetown. "The blue envelope is very important because there's an oath on the back that's got to be signed," McDowell says. Harding's questions aren't one of a kind when asking about the validity of mail-in ballots. Many people have wondered if dozens of ballots for other voters. "As long as they've sealed it and signed it themselves, that's fine," McDowell says. "There's no law against you sticking someone else's ballots in our boxes for them." As for posting ballots on social media, McDowell says that's fine for absentee or mail-in ballots. "You're certainly able to take a picture of it and post it on social media, we have no laws against that," McDowell says. "If you're talking about inside a polling location, you're not supposed to have a cellphone as a general rule." Despite solutions offered by the Department of Elections, Harding says he and his wife will likely vote in person at the polls. McDowell says the number of polling volunteers required to have an election is the same this year despite the high number of mail-in voters. He says volunteers are still needed in Sussex County, but that space is filling up fast.