County’s elections director just followed his dad to work

In some way or another, Kenneth “Bo” McDowell has been involved with elections in Sussex County for more than 30 years. His dad, Kenneth McDowell Sr., was the Sussex County Department of Elections director for 29 years before Bo took over in July 2020.

“I would sit right there and take it all in,” said McDowell, pointing to the couch I was sitting on, during an interview Oct. 29.

McDowell said he started helping his dad when he was in high school, and he’s pretty much done everything that’s part of the election process.

“I’d get a phone call while I was in college, saying I needed to come home and work at a voting location because there weren’t enough people,” said McDowell. “It was fine, because I usually needed some extra money.”

Now in his early 40s, McDowell said he enjoys the excitement surrounding elections, but when he was younger, he was just hanging out with dad.

“If he had been a mechanic, I’d have followed him to the shop,” said McDowell.

As of the interview, four days into early voting, there had been about 43,000 early votes cast and about 10,000 absentee ballots received, said McDowell, adding that’s nearly a quarter of the county’s registered 205,000 voters. It might get to 100,000 voters by the time the full 10 days of early voting is completed, he said.

“If this keeps up, the actual day of voting could be slow,” said McDowell.

McDowell said concerns about COVID was still on the minds of voters during the first election he oversaw in 2020, which led to lots of absentee ballots. This time around, he said, he thinks people are forgoing absentee and voting early because they prefer to do it in person.

McDowell said he was prepared for the early voters on the eastern side of the county, because they always turn out. It’s the turnout on the western side of the county that’s surprised him, he said.

It’s been busy everywhere, he said, adding that Sussex County has nine early voting locations, which is nearly as many as the other two counties combined (10) and significantly more than the one per county required by state law.

McDowell recognizes it’s not perfect. Some of the early voting locations can only handle seven booths, but ideally, there are 10 to 12, he said.

Early voting ends Sunday, Nov. 3. On Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, there will be 79 voting sites scattered throughout the county.

McDowell said he and his staff don’t care how many people turn out to vote, because they’re prepared. As long as they get out and vote, that’s all that matters, he said.

Candidates: Don’t forget your campaign signs

A couple of columns ago, I used this very space to say I find some of the non-candidate campaign signs around the area amusing. I’ve seen more and they still amuse me.

That said, I’ll be glad when all the candidate signs have been removed from the state’s rights of way. It’s clutter that I don’t like.

State law requires candidates to remove their signs from the right of way within 30 days after the election. There’s a penalty if a candidate fails to do so – each sign left out after that 30-day mark is subject to a fine of $25 and a $15 recovery fee. Confiscated signs will be disposed of after 30 days, and the fines still apply.

As of this column, it appears the state is waiting for the general election to be over Tuesday, Nov. 5, to begin enforcing the rule. There are some candidates who lost in the Sept. 10 primary that still have some pretty noticeable signs out there.

Joke of the Week

If for no other reason then all the mailers, text messages, television commercials and other forms of advertising, I don’t think I’m alone when I say I’ll be glad when this coming election is over. That’s no joke, but here’s a Halloween and election joke combo. As always, send jokes to cflood@capegazette.com.

A: Why don’t skeletons run for elected office?

B: They don’t have the guts.