Party · Delaware

INDEPENDENT (INDEPENDENT PARTY OF DE)

One of 7 parties on Delaware’s list for the November 3, 2026 election, named as the state names it.1

Research draftminor political party
Picks nominees by
Convention
State’s party list
The state’s own list
Researched
October 27, 2026

Research draft. We gathered this from official sources on October 27, 2026: election offices, state laws and court records, each linked to its source. Separate reviewers checked a random sample of 54 facts from the party research against the cited sources and found 4 errors, since corrected; 1 couldn’t be checked because the source wouldn’t display its text. The rest hasn't been reviewed fact by fact yet, so check the linked source before relying on anything here.

§1Ballot status

Drafted by AI from the public sources cited. Each sentence links to its source.

It is on Delaware's own list of parties qualified for the 2026 election.1 The state's class for it: minor political party.1

The Department of Elections' 2026 general election candidate list shows four qualified candidates for this party, labeled Ind Pty of DE.2

How a party qualifies in Delaware

A party appears on the general election ballot only if, 21 days before the primary, at least one-tenth of 1 percent of all voters registered statewide on December 31 of the year before are registered with it; for 2026 that meant 802 voters as of August 25, 2026.1,3 A party must also be an organization that elects a state committee and officers at a state convention, and the Department of Elections asks a party nominating candidates to file a certificate naming the officers who may make nominations.1,4 § 101 A party with at least 5 percent of registered voters on December 31 of the year before the election is a major political party; every other party is a minor political party.4,5 § 101

How a party keeps its status

Ballot status depends only on the party's number of registered voters, which is checked again before each general election using the same one-tenth of 1 percent test; vote totals do not matter.1,3 Even an eligible party is printed on a county's ballots only if at least one of its candidates qualifies to appear there.6

§2How it picks nominees

Drafted by AI from the public sources cited. Each sentence links to its source.

Convention. Minor parties choose their nominees at a state or county nominating convention held by August 1 of the election year.5,7 § 3301(e)

Delaware's rules for nominating

Major party candidates file by noon on the second Tuesday in July, and contested nominations are decided in a primary on the second Tuesday after the first Monday in September, where the candidate with the most votes wins.8,9,10 Minor parties nominate at a state or county convention held by August 1 and must file their certificates of nomination within 10 business days afterward.7 § 3301(e) Candidates not affiliated with any party reach the ballot by filing a declaration and petitions signed by at least 1 percent of the registered voters for the office by September 1.11

§3Notes on Delaware’s party research

What the research couldn’t find or confirm about Delaware’s parties, in its own plain words. Nothing is left out silently.

  • Party names are copied in the capital letters the Department of Elections' Political Party Ballot Status page uses (updated October 5, 2026). The Department's candidate list prints shorter forms, such as Ind Pty of DE.
  • The Department lists NONPARTISAN as ballot eligible. We found no official source on whether it has the state committee and convention that the legal definition of a party requires, or whether it filed a certificate of party title.
  • The ballot status page gives registration counts as of its October 5, 2026 update, not as of the August 25, 2026 measuring date; the statuses are as the Department states them.