Watch: Local Candidates Speak at Forum 🎙
City Election Day is April 15... Meet Your Options & Make a Plan to Vote!
One week from today, on Saturday, April 15, residents of the City of New Castle will head to the polls to select from among our neighbors a new Mayor and three new City Council members (two for 4-year terms, one for a 2-year partial term).
Get the full details of how and when to register and vote on the city website.
Last Tuesday, City Topics hosted a town hall-style Forum for Council Candidates in the River Room at the Senior Center. Those running introduced themselves to the audience, answered questions submitted by the public and shared their ideas about topics ranging from development, to traffic and parking, to municipal facilities and services, and much more.
Candidates in the race for Mayor of New Castle also offered statements following the Council Forum.
If you missed the event or had issues with the livestream, we have now uploaded higher-quality recordings of the event, which you can check out below or directly on the City Topics YouTube Channel.
Council Candidates’ Forum
The River Room was ‘standing room only’ throughout most of Tuesday’s event. All seven candidates for City Council participated in the Forum: Victor L. Bryson, III; Ethan J. Quirk; William A. Robinett; Rick Schiller; Suzanne Souder; Andrew Zeltt; and Nermin Zubaca.
The event was moderated by City Topics admin and principal writer Matt Alexander, and runs about an hour and twenty-five minutes.
Thank you to all of the City Council hopefuls for taking part in the Candidate Forum.
Mayoral Candidates’ Statements
City Topics attempted to include the mayoral candidates fully in this event from the beginning, sending both the same correspondence that all Council candidates received. That did not work out in time, but once it became belatedly clear that both would be in attendance, William Blest and Valarie Leary were given the same opportunity to offer statements.
Although Mr. Blest deferred to Mrs. Leary to go first at the live event, their statements - which are approx. the same length - are presented in alphabetical order in the video.
Thank you to Mr. Blest and Mrs. Leary for their remarks at Tuesday’s Forum.
Election Information
TIME of Voting
Saturday, April 15, 2023
8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
LOCATION of Voting
New Castle Senior Center
400 South Street
New Castle, DE 19720
Offices to be Elected and Candidates
Mayor: 4-Year Term
William (Bill) Blest
Valarie W. Leary
Council Members: Two 4-Year Terms & One 2-Year Term (Vote for up to Three)
Victor L. Bryson, III
Ethan J. Quirk
William A. Robinett
Rick Schiller
Suzanne Souder
Andrew Zeltt
Nermin Zubaca
Learn more about the candidates for Mayor and City Council from their responses to publicly-submitted questions in the March 29 issue of the New Castle Weekly.
Absentee Ballot & Registration Info
To obtain an Absentee Ballot, contact the Absentee Ballot Clerk, Diane Delgado at 322- 9804, or in person at 220 Delaware Street, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Affidavits for Absentee Ballots will be available from the City Office, during normal business hours, Monday - Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. beginning March 1st. State Voter Registration is available at the City Office during normal business hours; the deadline to register to vote in the Election is Monday, April 10th.
April 14th at 12 noon is the deadline to request an affidavit for Absentee Ballots from the City Administration office, 220 Delaware Street. April 14th at 4:30 p.m. is the deadline for Absentee Ballots to be turned in to the City Office. Absentee Ballots may also be brought to the polling place on the day of the Election
Full Election Info on the City Website.
Register to Vote at iVote.DE.gov.
City Topics is not affiliated with, and does not endorse, any candidate or campaign.
Sincere gratitude to the Forum Team that came together to help make this month’s event possible: the Eide Family, Robert Wingle and Jill Green. Local democracy gets too little attention for how much it materially affects our lives - thank you all for helping to provide a way for more of our neighbors to get involved in the process.