Voting trends in Wilmington, Delaware, 1926-1954
Date
1957
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The City of Willington, Delaware. has been returning Democratic majorities in recent years in general elections while in the municipal elections the Republicans have had no trouble in electing their candidates to the city offices. In recognition of these facts, the 1955 Democratic General Assembly passed, over the Governor’s veto, a series of bills affecting the municipal elections. The date of the municipal election was changed to coincide with the biennial general elections and councilmen were to be elected from the city at large instead of from the separate wards. ☐ An analysis of the elections in Wilmington from 1926 to 1954 indicated that there was a central tendency toward increasing Democratic percentages in general elections but revealed no tendency, but rather a stable situation insofar as municipal elections were concerned. Several wards show close relationships between general and municipal elections which was not evident in the city. In other wards no relationship is apparent, even to the point of the lines of regression sloping in different directions. ☐ Comparing elections with the preceding one of the same class, a higher or lower Democratic percentage in a general election was followed by a similar reaction in the Democratic percentage in the municipal election held the next year. ☐ The vote in Wilmington generally followed accepted participation principles.