Last week, Delaware held its 2024 school board elections on Tuesday, May 14, concluding the ACLU of Delaware and Delaware Voting Rights Coalition’s DVRC) third year of voter education efforts aimed at increasing voter participation and engagement in school board races. This year, seven elections took place statewide. Results of these elections can be found here.
This year, 5,661 voters cast a ballot in their school board race. Turnout in Indian River School District saw an increase of over 300 more votes cast than last year. Because school board elections suffer from low turnout, these small increases make a big difference. Colonial School District’s race was decided by 12 votes, underscoring just how important every vote is.
ACLU-DE and DVRC’s efforts centered around the relaunch of VotDelaware.org — a one-stop shop for election-related needs featuring questionnaires that allowed voters to learn more about where the candidates in their districts stand on the issues that matter most to them — and the DVRCs voter guide, “How to Vote in Delaware’s 2024 School Board Elections”, available in both English and Spanish. In the lead up to Election Day, 24% of voters viewed our candidate questionnaire page on VoteDelaware.org.
Other efforts included a statewide campaign via Delaware Online, direct engagement with community organizations like public libraries and YMCAs, bilingual social media educational content, and four virtual candidate forums hosted by First State Educate. Recordings of the forums can be viewed on the ACLU of Delaware’s Youtube channel.
Looking ahead, the ACLU of Delaware encourages all Delawareans—not just those with kids in school now—to learn more about their district’s school board members and their stances, attend local school board meetings, and hold elected officials accountable to prioritizing the needs of the community and students they represent.
School board elections might be over, but the 2024 election season has just begun. ACLU-DE and DVRC are now turning attention to voter education ahead of the upcoming 2024 primary and general elections this fall. With critical issues like probation reform, reproductive freedom, and voting rights at stake, it's more important than ever for Delawareans to have access to the information they need to cast their ballots confidently.
Stay up to date on important election information, who the candidates are, and ways to get involved at VoteDelaware.org.
