Attorney General Kathy Jennings, Gov. Matt Meyer, and the Delaware Department of Elections are reminding voters of their rights ahead of Delaware’s general election.

“The right to vote is load-bearing: it is the right that holds up all of the other rights that we’re entitled to as citizens,” said Attorney General Kathy Jennings. “Delawareans should know that our agencies are working hard to ensure that the exercise of that right continues to be easy, safe, and secure — no matter what.”

“Voting is the fundamental right that sustains our democracy,” said Governor Matt Meyer. “It is how the American people choose their leaders and hold those leaders accountable. Make no mistake, Delaware will continue to protect eligible voters, support our election workers and defend lawful election results, regardless of who wins.”

“The Delaware Department of Elections is committed to administering secure, fair, accessible, accurate, and impartial elections for all Delaware voters,” said State Election Commissioner Anthony Albence. “The Department works diligently to ensure that every eligible Delaware voter has the opportunity to exercise their right to vote.”

Know your rights. 

We remind the public of their voting rights and First Amendment rights:

• If you are registered to vote, you are entitled to vote.

• You can’t be coerced, threatened, hindered or intimidated by any person or corporation when voting.

• You can vote if you are in line when polls close at 8 p.m. on November 3.

• If you make a mistake on your ballot, you can ask a poll worker for a new one.

• If voting machines are down at your polling place, you can ask for a paper ballot.

• If your name isn’t in the poll book, you can still vote with a provisional ballot. You’ll be notified in writing when you vote as to how you can find out whether your vote was counted, and if not, why not.

• If you are blind or physically disabled, you can bring up to two people to help you vote.

• If you moved or changed your name without telling the Department of Elections, you can vote at the polling place of your address on Election Day by correcting your name and address on Election Day before you vote.

• If you need help in the voting booth, two elections officers from different parties have to help at the same time. They cannot influence your decision, and they must leave the voting booth before you cast your vote.

• Electioneering laws specifically pertain to advocacy for candidates, partisan topics, and “issues on the ballot”; voters are free to enter voting rooms while wearing t-shirts or slogans relating to non-partisan issues (e.g., “Black Lives Matter” or “Blue Lives Matter”).

• All polling places should be physically accessible. Voters with disabilities, including voters who are blind, are entitled to at least one accessible voting machine at the polling place under the Help America Vote Act.  Delaware’s voting machines all have full accessibility features.

• Campaign staff and volunteers are allowed to contact voters in person or by phone, irrespective of “No Soliciting” signs, but are also prohibited from doing so within 50 feet of the entrance to a polling location.

Voters who are concerned about a perceived threat to their safety should call 911; voters who are concerned about any other problem can contact the Department of Elections’ voter hotline at (302) 739-4277.

The law protects your rights. 

The DOJ’s Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust (DCRPT) has provided law enforcement with written guidance listing possible Title 11 and Title 15 offenses that could be encountered on Election Day. DOJ investigators in all three counties will staff a hotline for law enforcement to contact in the event of illegal activity, including:

• Voter intimidation, whether armed or unarmed:

  • Menacing (placing someone in fear of imminent physical injury)

  • Reckless Endangering 2^nd Degree (risk of injury) and Reckless Endangering 1^st Degree (risk of death)

  • Improper Influence (threatening harm to a public servant, party officer, or any other person to influence their decision)

  • Harassment and/or Terroristic Threatening (threatening to commit any crime likely to result in death or serious injury, or making a false statement that could cause evacuation of a building/facility or cause serious inconvenience)

  • Criminal Nuisance (endangering the health or safety of others)

  • Breach of Peace or Threat of Violence with intent to impede lawful election proceedings

  • Entering a voting room for a reason other than voting, including to disrupt the election, or attempting to take charge of a voting room

  • Impersonating law enforcement

  • Persons other than duly-appointed election officers questioning voters about their credentials

  • Impeding or delaying voters by asking for identification, videotaping, photographing, or otherwise making visual records of voters or their vehicles

  • Crimes committed while armed on school property may be aggravated to higher-level offenses

  • Deprivation of Civil Rights

• Fraudulent voting:

  • Impersonating another voter

  • Knowingly voting more than once

  • Voting out of district

  • Interfering with election officers in the discharge of their duties

  • Stealing, breaking, concealing, or removing a ballot box

  • Defacing, altering, destroying, or concealing any submitted ballot

  • Bribery, persuasion, or intimidation of voters by an election officer

• Illegal electioneering:

  • Advocating for candidates or partisan topics/issues; displaying or distributing materials referring to candidates or partisan topics/issues on the ballot; or projecting sound referring to said candidates from loudspeakers or otherwise into the polling place or the area within 50 feet of the entrance to the building in which the voting room is located.

Federal monitors will not interfere.

Voters may know that the U.S. Department of Justice is placing federal election monitors in Delaware and other states on Election Day. Federal election monitors are a normal, lawful presence in America’s elections under the Voting Rights Act of 1965; federal election monitors have observed voting without incident under prior Democratic and prior Republican presidents. Delawareans’ voting rights are uncompromised.

The U.S. Constitution clearly reserves for the states and Congress the authority to administer and regulate elections. Federal monitors’ jobs are to ensure that voters’ federal rights are honored and to be available as fact witnesses if voters’ rights are compromised.

The Delaware Department of Justice is in regular communication with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware to ensure that voters can cast their ballots freely and securely. Federal monitors are federal employees who will cooperate with state and local authorities and comply with all state laws, including Delaware law barring them from entering polling locations without an escort. They may ask voters outside of polling places for an interview about the voting experience.  They cannot compel voters to speak to them.  Voters are free to refuse the request or may agree to answer questions only anonymously. Monitors will not be armed, nor interfere with, obstruct, or intimidate voters entering the polls; pursuant to state and federal law, including 18 U.S.C. 592, armed federal law enforcement agents may not be inside or near polling locations.

Delaware is using every tool to keep voting easy, safe, and secure.

Delaware’s civil and public safety authorities—including the Delaware Department of Elections, the Delaware Department of Safety & Homeland Security, the Delaware Department of Technology & Information, the Delaware Emergency Management Agency, the Delaware National Guard, and Delaware DOJ staff in the Division of Civil Rights & Public Trust, Civil Division, Office of Impact Litigation, and Office of the Attorney General—have been actively preparing for the 2026 election both internally and in coordination under Governor Matt Meyer’s Election Security Task Force. That includes, but is not limited to:

• DOJ and the Department of Elections have trained Delaware’s poll workers and will be staffing the state’s voter hotline at (302) 739-4277

• DOJ, police, and civilian authorities have drilled coordinated responses to any potential election, pre-election, or post-election disruption and will ensure that voters are able to cast their ballots lawfully—no matter what.

• DOJ’s election attorneys will be on call to provide rapid-response legal counsel to Delaware election workers.

• The Division of Civil Rights & Public Trust is on call to consult with law enforcement on any instances of voter intimidation or criminal obstruction of voting rights. DCRPT investigators are deployed statewide to serve, if needed, as fact witnesses and to support state and local law enforcement.

• The Office of Impact Litigation is prepared, in the event of election interference, to file emergency litigation.

• Communications staff and legal counsel from the Delaware Department of Justice and every member agency of the Election Security Task Force will staff a statewide Elections Joint Information Center (Elections JIC) from 6 a.m. on November 3 to 1 a.m. on November 4 in order to ensure prompt, consistent, and accurate communication with the media and public.

The DOJ reminds voters to exercise patience, both on Election Day toward poll workers and other voters, and with potential delays in the subsequent days as the results of national elections are tallied across the country.

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