2023 Primary, Special Elections Successful: Delco Officials

DELAWARE COUNTY, PA — Election officials in Delaware County are touting Tuesday's general and special elections as successes.

According to the county, nearly 100,000 Delaware County-registered voters in all 49 municipalities participated in the elections.

The Elections Department expects the total vote count to be under 100,000, which will be about 20,000 fewer than the roughly 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, county election officials said.

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

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.

Republican- and Democratic-registered voters weighed in on 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, the county held two successful special elections due to vacancies in office, with voters in the 163rd State Representative District electing a new House Representative in Democrat Heather Boyd, and voters in Radnor Township’s 4th Ward electing a new commissioner for their ward.

"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. 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 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," Allen said. "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 online here.

Delaware County Elections will continue to post unofficial updates to the Delco Votes! website as the remaining ballots are adjudicated.