On Tuesday, Nov.5, Delawareans will go to the polls for the opportunity to vote in elections for federal, state and local officials. There will be 78 contests when you count all the elections at every level across the state. Add the fifteen elections taking place in the city of Wilmington and the total rises to 93.
Democracy is alive and well in Delaware.
Not all of the elections are contested, however; many candidates for the state Senate and state House of Representatives are running unopposed.
Each of the three federal elections: President/Vice President, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives are contested, as are the races for governor, lieutenant governor, and the state’s commissioner of insurance.
Likewise, some local elections – for New Castle County Council, Kent County Levy Court, and Sussex County Board of Commissioners – were either decided in the primary, where members of the same party competed, or feature only one candidate because there is no other viable opponents in the district. But other key local races are yet to be finalized.
With so many races and so much information, the Delaware Journalism Collaborative in partnership with the League of Women Voters has produced “Your Candidates,” an interactive voters’ guide that considers every race in the state whether it is contested or not.
With the exception of the presidential and vice presidential candidates, questionnaires were sent to every qualified candidate with a request that the forms be completed and returned so that they could be used by the Collaborative and the League as a means of educating the voting public.
Many candidates, but not all, completed and returned the questionnaires, which asked a series of questions pertinent to the office a candidate seeks, and solicited biographical background and comprehensive contact information, including email addresses, web sites and telephone numbers for each respondent’s campaign.
For those candidates who failed to respond to the questionnaire, collaborative staff members searched out a website address for all but three candidates, who apparently never established either a website or set up a Facebook page. Users of the guide can click the website addresses to learn more about the candidates who opted not to return our questionnaire.
To make it easy for users to find the race they want to learn about, the guide is divided into the following categories:
The guide also includes a “toggle switch” on the left hand side of every page, which allows a reader to switch from the English presentation to a Spanish translation with a tap of their finger or a click of their mouse.
In addition to the questions and answers from the candidates, the guide also includes in-depth reporting and analysis on the Congressional and gubernatorial races, campaign finance and projected changes coming to the state legislature as a result of the upcoming election.
For more information on the Delaware Journalism Collaborative or to see “Your Candidates” visit us at dejournalism.org.
The Delaware Journalism Collaborative is a project of the Local Journalism Initiative.
