New election guidelines irk towns

By Sam Harvey
Staff Reporter

In essence, these regulations would standardize town elections throughout the state – but town representatives have suggested they’re just too complicated. The Delaware League of Local Governments (DLLG), via Executive Director George Wright, has protested that they’ll be more of a hindrance than a help, especially for the smaller towns.

Ocean View Mayor Gary Meredith reported much the same sentiment at recent Sussex County Association of Towns (SCAT) meetings. And he said he agreed with it.

“I don’t like any of it,” Meredith stated. “It’s far too detailed. It gets into the mechanics of how we run our own elections. And reading it for the first time, I think it’s too much.”

Meredith recognized the questions that spurred Delaware Department of Elections Commissioner Frank Calio to draft the legislation.

Earlier this year, Smyrna Mayor Mark Schaeffer trailed challenger Gene Mullen as the polls closed, but absentee ballots tipped the election in Schaeffer’s favor.

More than 30 percent of the absentee voters went for Mullen, but Mullen still alleged impropriety — Schaeffer, and an elections board member, had personally distributed some of the absentee ballots to voters.

The new regulations clarify where aggrieved citizens like Mullen would go to submit complaints about pre-election activities (to the town’s Board of Elections), and how those entities would handle such complaints.

As further clarified, citizens could further appeal a local board’s decisions to the Commissioner of Elections, and then to Superior Court.

Regarding Smyrna’s sticky situation specifically, the new regulations include the boilerplate: “Amunicipal Board of Elections member shall not participate in any activity that in any way supports or opposes a candidate for municipal office or an issue to be decided by referendum.”

Further, “Elected officials of a municipality or a candidate for a municipal office shall not possess, deliver or return Absentee Ballots for a municipality’s election except his/her her Absentee Ballot.”

All very proper — but Meredith still had his objections. “Just because there was a problem in one town — Smyrna — I don’t think all the towns need to be legislated the same way,” he said.

Meredith said he had problems with both the amount of added detail, and “the state dictating how we run our local governments.”

“I’m for home rule, as much as we can get it,” he emphasized.

Sussex County Department of Elections’ Ken McDowell (administrative director) recognized the local concerns. Referring to the clarified appeals process, “I don’t think having a mechanism in place for a challenge is a bad thing,” he noted.

But nearly half (25 out of 57) of all the towns in Delaware are in Sussex, McDowell pointed out, and many of them are quite small.

He agreed with Meredith on many counts. “This director, I can tell you, is 100 percent for home rule,” he emphasized. And regarding the election that prompted the new regulations, McDowell said Smyrna had already managed to resolve its situation, on its own.

But he said the regulations had their value, too. “I like a procedure,” McDowell emphasized. “However, I want a procedure for the towns that doesn’t hurt them.” Election officials and legislators have already thinned down the proposed regulations, and McDowell suspected that process might continue in the General Assembly.

They’ve already added a “1,500 clicker,” McDowell noted, which relieves the smaller towns (populations of less than 1,500) of responsibilities for providing some of the extras. “Towns like Bethel, or Ellendale, shouldn’t have to go out and hire a town manager just to hold elections,” he said.

For instance, such towns can provide absentee voting and establish the procedures for absentee voting in their own charters, if they want. As drafted, the state wouldn’t require it.

In addition, these small towns would still have to post public notice of the election, but wouldn’t have to advertise in the media.

Elsewhere in the regulations:

• The smallest towns (up to 500 people) would have to establish three-person Boards of Elections. Towns with populations between 501 and 1,500 would have to establish five-person Boards of Elections.

• Residency requirements would be slimmed to require residency 15 days prior to the election. Individual town charters would handle voter eligibility for non-resident property owners. However, the regulations were less clear regarding non-residents’ eligibility to vote via absentee ballot.

• With the caveat “Municipalities shall not adopt any ordinance that is contrary to any of the provisions of this subchapter,” there’s some question as to whether the smaller towns could provide slimmed-down absentee-voting procedures.

• All candidates would have to file financial disclosure statements with the town’s Board of Elections.

• The provisions of the bill would apply to elections held more than 180 days following enactment.