Don’t rely on machine votes to win in Delaware

On Election Day last week, I was assigned to cover the watch party for Stell Parker Selby, the incumbent Democrat in the District 20 race. Her opponent was Nikki Miller.

The polls closed at 8 p.m. A few minutes later, I was sitting in the parking lot of Irish Eyes in Lewes, the location of Stell’s party, hitting the refresh button on the state’s Department of Elections website to see what the early vote totals would show.

About 40 minutes after the polls closed, the first set of votes were reported and Selby had a lead over Miller by about 680 votes. I didn’t really think too much about it, other than it was time to head inside for photos and comments.

Once inside, after having a few nice words with Stell, I took a seat and joined everyone else in watching results come in. It was during that down time that it occurred to me that Stell’s lead was a result of absentee ballots and early voting, which were counted first. As the Department of Elections website refreshed and more districts reported, Miller slowly chipped away at Stell’s lead. Ultimately, after all the votes were counted, Stell held onto her seat by 245 votes.

A couple of days later, I was curious if the early voting/absentee combo happened in other local races. It did. Russ Huxtable in the Senate District 6 race, Jeff Hilovsky in the Representative District 4 race, Claire Snyder-Hall in the Representative District 14 race and Jane Gruenebaum in the Sussex County Council District 3 race all had more votes than their opponents before machine votes were counted. They also all won. In the District 4 race, Hilovsky’s opponent, Gregg Lindner, actually got a few hundred more absentee votes, but Hilovsky got a couple thousand more early votes. Hilovsky also got more machine votes.

After seeing the pattern locally, I decided to go statewide. It’s a pattern that holds true all the way down the state, except for one race. As far as I can tell, there was only one candidate who was able to get enough machine votes on Election Day to overcome a deficit in absentee votes and early voting votes – Kevin Hensley in the Representative District 9 race. He had a 96-vote deficit after those two pools of votes were counted, but ended up winning by 918 votes.

The point is, with new early voting rules in play for Delaware’s voters, it’s more important than ever to get out those early voters. Apparently, voters appreciate being able to do it on their own time.

Drive-through country

Another take away I have from the election is that Sussex County continues to be a microcosm of the country as a whole. Coastal communities vote majority Democrat. Everywhere else votes majority Republican.

I didn’t have a column at the time, but it’s an observation from the first time Donald Trump was elected president. I remember national pundits saying Trump won because pollsters and Democrats didn’t account for the fly-over country portion of the country. For us locally, they weren’t really talking about the Delmarva Peninsula. They were talking about the part of the country west of the I-95 corridor.

However, many of the mid-Atlantic “coastal elites” the pundits were talking about have second homes or vacation in coastal Sussex. They come by proverbial boatload during the summer months. For many of them, the only time they stop along their journey is at Quick Stop in Milton because the gas is cheap.

Democrats were successful in eastern Sussex – most notably flipping the county council seat that represents the northern portion of the county’s coast line. However, Republicans continue to hold onto elected positions west of Route 30, and Sussex was the only county of the state’s three with more Trump votes than Harris votes (It was the same for 2020 and 2016).

Sussex County may not be fly-over country, but a significant portion of it is drive-through country. If you don’t believe me, drive west to Maryland. You’ll see.

Joke of the Week

According to at least a few websites, Saturday, Nov. 16, is National Fast Food Day. I’ll be honest, I hadn’t heard of it, but I came across a joke talking about fast food and democracy. After spending the first two portions of this column talking about voting, it was serendipitous.

Mom 1 to Mom 2, at the park a couple days after the election: Did you take the opportunity to teach your kids about the election?

Mom 2: I taught my kids about democracy by having them vote on what movie to watch and pizza to order. And then I picked the movie and pizza I wanted because I'm the one with the money.