GEORGETOWN — It was another successful Return Day at The Circle of Delaware’s southernmost county seat on Thursday.
After reading Sussex County’s election results atop the county courthouse, Town Crier Kirk Lawson put it this way: “Some may ask why Sussex County? Today, that’s all that matters.”
Return Day dates back as far as 1791, after the Sussex’s County seat was moved from Lewes to Georgetown.
Voters would travel to Georgetown on Election Day to cast their ballots and return — hence the name of the occasion — two days later.
The event has become a mainstay of Delaware politics for centuries, as it symbolizes bipartisanship due to its ceremonial burying of the hatchet, in which each political party’s chairs symbolically bury a hatchet to put aside their political differences.
Georgetown Mayor Bill West, who is the president of the Sussex County Association of Towns and the vice president of the League of Local Governments, said the occasion is one of the biggest events for the county seat. He also emphasized how Return Day plays a valuable role in a small state like Delaware.