Delaware candidates monitor a polling location for voting issues before polls close at 8 p.m.

What questions do you have about the 2024 elections? What major issues do you want candidates to address? Let us know.

This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

It’s primary election day in the First State, and tens of thousands of Delawareans will head to the polls to cast their vote. But many people avoided what could be long lines and took advantage of the last early voting day on Sunday, including voters in New Castle County.

In June, the Delaware Supreme Court struck down a lower court ruling that barred early voting and permanent absentee voting in the state’s general elections. Lawmakers passed a law in 2019 that allowed 10 days of early voting beginning in 2022. The permanent absentee law was approved in 2010. Early voting and permanent absentee voting in primaries and special elections is already allowed.

Department of Elections data shows at least 839 New Castle County residents cast ballots on Sunday at six locations in the area, including 233 voters at two sites in  Wilmington. An enthusiastic crowd of activists and candidates mingled together a short distance from the entrance of the Police Athletic League polling location in Northwest Wilmington, waving signs to promote their campaign or their preferred candidates.

Candidate for Wilmington mayor Velda Jones-Potter and gubernatorial candidate Matt Meyer showed up at the PAL polling site to greet supporters, cast their ballots and energize their base.

Jones-Potter said she was on-site to encourage her supporters to vote and make sure they didn’t experience any trouble casting ballots.

The Department of Elections acknowledged last week that 764 affected voters statewide who were registered automatically through the Department of Motor Vehicles were given incorrect party identification due to a “clerical error.” Of the 764, 328 voters reside in New Castle County and 87 in the city of Wilmington. A DOE spokesperson said the only calls they received were from the PAL Center, all of the affected registrations have been updated, no one had been turned away and everyone has been allowed to vote.

Jones-Potter disputed the agency’s response Sunday.

“I do take exception to two things that the Department of Elections has communicated to the public. One is that no one was turned away. A number of people were, in fact, turned away. Some of them have had the opportunity to vote since, but not everyone,” she said. “And then the second exception that I take is that it’s limited to just a few people, unless and until we know exactly what the cause was. Does it affect absentee ballots?”

The elections department said Tuesday no absentee ballots were impacted by the clerical error.

Two voters WHYY News spoke with at the PAL Center Sunday said they had no issues voting.

Earl White said early voting was more convenient for him because sometimes he doesn’t have time to vote on primary day. He said he wants to see change at all levels of government, including local, state and national.

“They’ve been messing up,” White said. “I work for the Port of Wilmington, and it’s been going downhill. We need a change.”

Gubernatorial candidate Matt Meyer pulled up to the PAL Center Sunday afternoon on his bicycle to cast his early vote in the primary. He was greeted by a crowd of supporters with signs bearing his name and chants. Shrugging on a sports coat, he gave a short speech to the crowd.

“None of it matters unless we make sure you and I, our spouses, our children if they’re 18, our parents, our friends, our neighbors, anyone you talked on the phone, either today or Tuesday, gets out to vote,” Meyer said. “That’s got to be 100% of what we’re working on.”

The polls are open from today until 8 p.m. The Department of Elections has a list of polling places on its website.