On Thursday May 7, 2020, Delaware Governor John Carney issued a 15th modification to his State of Emergency declaration, further delaying the 2020 Delaware presidential primary and school board elections.

Briefly stated, the new order makes the following changes:

• The April 28 Delaware presidential primary, previously delayed until June 2, will now be held on July 7, 2020.
• The May 12th Delaware school board elections, previously delayed until June 16,will now be held on July 21, 2020.
• The Delaware Department of Elections will send absentee ballot requests by mail to all voters who are eligible to vote in the presidential primaries (those registered in one of the two major parties).
• Municipal elections currently scheduled after May 7 but before the emergency order is lifted may continue at the discretion of the municipality.

 The order also specifies that the agencies conducting these elections are required to implement social distancing requirements, to enforce the requirement that all persons age 13 and older wear a face covering at all times, and to enforce crowd limitations of 10 persons at a time at polling places. Municipalities are also encouraged to mail absentee ballot applications to all eligible voters in the municipality. The number of physical polling places on election day may be reduced due to expanded use of absentee voting.

The official state news release is here: news.delaware.gov/2020/05/07/governor-carney-reschedules-presidential-primary-for-july-7 and the full text of the emergency declaration order is available as well: governor.delaware.gov/health-soe/fifteenth-state-of-emergency.

For more information about absentee ballots, and to request an absentee ballot for the school board elections, start at either VOTE411.org or elections.delaware.gov.