The short version.
Delaware runs elections through the Delaware Department of Elections, with a county office in New Castle, Kent, and Sussex. If you're running with a party, you file a notice of candidacy and pay a filing fee set by your party; if more than one candidate files for the same party and office, you meet in a closed primary in September, and the winner advances to the November general election. If you're running unaffiliated, you skip the primary and reach the general ballot by petition instead of a fee. Delaware's primaries are closed — only voters registered with a party may vote in that party's primary.
This page covers how that works for Kent County. It is not legal advice — your county Department of Elections and the Delaware Department of Elections' get-on-the-ballot page are the sources of truth.
Kent County at the ballot box.
- In 2024, Kent County cast 88,141 votes for president: 48.2% Republican, 50.2% Democratic.
- Turnout has moved from 87,025 votes in 2020 to 88,141 in 2024.
Public presidential-election returns for Kent County. In a closed primary, the nomination is often decided by a few hundred reliable party voters — which is where a real field operation pays off.
How to get on the ballot in Delaware.
Which route you take depends on how you're running — with a party, or unaffiliated.
Path 1 — Run with a party.
File a notice of candidacy with the Department of Elections by noon on the second Tuesday in July of the election year, and pay the filing fee set by your party — typically a percentage of the office's salary, paid to your party committee rather than to the state. If you're the only candidate from your party for that office, you go straight to the November ballot; if others file too, you run in the closed September primary and the winner becomes the party's nominee.
Path 2 — Run unaffiliated (or with a minor party).
Unaffiliated candidates skip the primary and the party fee. Instead you file a declaration and a petition signed by at least one percent of the registered voters in the state or your district by September 1, which secures a spot on the November general ballot. Minor-party candidates are nominated at their party's convention and certified to the Department of Elections.
How the filing calendar works.
Delaware's calendar repeats every cycle even though the exact dates shift year to year:
- The notice of candidacy for major-party candidates is due by noon on the second Tuesday in July of the election year — a firm deadline, so mark it early.
- Unaffiliated candidates file their petition by September 1; write-in candidates file a separate declaration closer to the election.
- The primary election is held in September (only where a party's race is contested), and the general election is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
Because the exact filing dates and fees change each cycle, we don't print them here — check the current calendar on the official Delaware get-on-the-ballot page. Your county Department of Elections office is listed below.
Offices on the ballot.
Delaware voters elect federal offices (U.S. House and Senate); statewide offices such as Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, State Treasurer, State Auditor, and Insurance Commissioner; the General Assembly (State Senate and House); county offices such as county executive, county council, sheriff, register of wills, recorder of deeds, and clerk of the peace; and municipal seats.
For the official list of Kent County seats up in a given cycle, check with your Department of Elections office below.
Your county Department of Elections.
Delaware runs elections through the Department of Elections and its three county offices. The Kent County office is where county candidates file and the source of truth for local dates, districts, and forms.
- Office
- 100 Enterprise Pl, Ste 5, Dover, DE 19904
- Phone
- (302) 739-4498
Contact details verified 2026-07-23. If a field is wrong or out of date, the official Delaware Department of Elections office directory is the canonical source.
After you qualify: building a field operation.
The paperwork ends the day you file. What starts then is the actual campaign — knocking on doors, recruiting volunteers, and identifying the voters who'll show up for you in September and November.
That's what Motion51 is built for — scoping a district, recruiting volunteers, cutting turf, and knocking doors from one app that works offline for areas with bad cell coverage and logs every door with a timestamp. Sign up for the free tier to see how a real field operation comes together.
If qualifying is settled and you're thinking about the field operation, our For Candidates page walks through the next steps.