SUSSEX COUNTY, Del. - Representative Bryan Shupe is faced first-hand with flaws in the mail-in voting system he voted against. The Republican lawmaker from Milford received a Democratic ballot for Delaware's primary election.
Representative Shupe has been a State Representative for the last two years and a registered Republican for the last fifteen. He first registered to vote as a Democrat when he was eighteen-years-old, but it wasn't an old voter registration list that caused him to receive the wrong ballot.
Department of Elections Sussex County Director Kenneth "Bo" McDowell says the department is used to mailing about 10,000 ballots, but COVID-19 caused them to send out 30,000 ballots for this primary election. He says there were very few mistakes statewide. "We were stuffing by hand and the wrong ballot got put into the wrong envelope when it was sent out, so we apologize greatly for that," McDowell says. McDowell says anyone with the wrong ballot who did not get it corrected before Monday would need to vote at the polls. Ballots can be dropped off to the Department of Elections office until 8 p.m. Tuesday. Shupe says lawmakers know first-hand how outdated voter registration lists can be. "We get un-deliverables, people who have passed away, people who have moved out of the district," Shupe says. He says that and $829,000 out of CARES Act money caused him to vote against mail-in balloting. "I thought it could be better used for small business recovery, for unemployment," Shupe says. Shupe tried the system for himself to see if there were any concerns and says not only did he receive the ballot for the opposite party, he received his ballot on the day it needed to be mailed back to the elections office. McDowell says the Department of Elections has a new machine to ensure the correct ballot is printed for each voter in its database. He says it will be in use in time for the Presidential election. "It does the job of many workers in a very short period of time so we can get back to doing the other part of elections because it never has been our sole role to count ballots, but it has become a big part of our jobs now," McDowell says. Shupe says the machine is a step in the right direction if voter registration lists are updated. "In January as lawmakers, we need to make it a point to give the resources to our elections office to make sure those voter rolls are fixed," says Shupe. McDowell says the Department of Elections will not stop working on improvements until it reaches 100% accuracy. Shupe says voters can ensure their voices are heard by voting in-person at the polls if they feel safe enough to do so or by making an appointment at their election district office. WRDE reached out to Shupe's Democratic opponent Greg Fuller to see how he feels about the mail-in voting process, but he said he did not have time for an interview on Monday.