Department of Elections presents $8.8 million budget

The Department of Elections made its pitch Feb. 6 for an $8.8 million budget with another $13.3 million in one-time funding to help pay for election costs.

Presenting the fiscal year 2025 budget to the Joint Finance Committee, State Election Commissioner Anthony Albence said early voting for the primaries and general elections will cost the state about $4 million. Election Day voting for those elections will cost $7.5 million, he said.

The $4 million cost for 10 days of early voting, as required by a 2019 Delaware law, has been part of one-time spending costs, not general operating funds, that Gov. John Carney includes in his yearly budgets.

Albence said he expects the cost for early voting to remain around $4 million going forward.

Improvements in accessibility of voting sites has been a priority for the department, which Albence said has worked with groups that have demanded improved facilities for disabled voters.

In Sussex County, Albence said improvements have been made to voting sites by moving them to facilities to better accommodate voters. 

“We’re working hard to address that at all our locations,” he said.

The department is looking into adding voting locations in Sussex County, he said, and new voting equipment is also needed. 

Answering a question on Delaware’s voter rolls, Albence said his office uses returned mail as one indication that voter registration may need to be updated.

The department also gets weekly updates on residents who have died from the state’s vital statistics office, which provides information online, he said. 

“That’s probably our primary source of information,” Albence said, adding that it takes about a week for the name of a deceased voter to be removed from the voter rolls.

The JFC is holding hearings throughout February as it moves forward with the fiscal year 2025 budget, which the General Assembly will finalize before the end of June.