Election Questions? Our Registrar Has Answers

Absentee voting, early voting, same day registration and voting. These are now all part of the process and it can confuse even the most seasoned voters. To help all of us understand the options, as well as some of the measures to protect election integrity, The Goshen News recently spoke with Democratic Registrar of Voters Nanci Howard, who gave us the following guidance.

Registration

You have to be registered to vote in Connecticut and if you voted in a recent election and haven’t moved, you’re probably all set. If you haven’t voted in any of the last four elections, the Registrars will have sent you a letter to verify whether you’re still a legal resident. People who responded to those letters from January to June were kept on the active voters list. Those who didn’t respond were moved to an inactive list, but they can be reactivated right up to and including on Election Day.

Registrations can be done in advance either online, by mail or in person, but after October 18^th, in-person registration remains the only option. If you’re not sure whether you are registered to vote, you can use the online tool on the CT Secretary of The State’s website to check. Go to: https://portal.ct.gov/sots and click on the tab for “Elections and Voting” and then select “Am I registered to vote?” from the list of options.

In Goshen, you can come to Town Hall at 42 North Street to register in person. To contact the Registrars of Voters by phone call (860) 491-2308, Extension 236. By email, you can contact the Democratic Registrar at NHoward@goshenct.gov and the Republican Registrar at DWilkes@GoshenCT.gov.

Here are some important registration and voting deadlines:

Goshen Early Voting & Same Day Registration:  Town Hall, 42 North Street
Goshen Election Day Voting:                                 Camp Cochipianee, 291 Beach Street

Voter ID

Connecticut requires voters to present an acceptable form of ID, but not necessarily a photo ID, either when they register to vote or when they vote in a primary, election, or referendum. But if you don’t have ID you can still be permitted to vote.

Provisional Ballot - Election officials issue provisional ballots under certain circumstances and only when a candidate for federal office is on the ballot. Provisional ballots do not include candidates for state or local elections. To vote by provisional ballot, people must fill out an application under penalty of false statement attesting to their eligibility and current standing as an elector in the town where the polling place is located.

Ballot Integrity - The process of running an election in Connecticut includes multi-layered security protocols to assure that all ballots are documented and counted properly. Measures include computer logging of absentee ballots, color-coding of early ballots, and other processes overseen by representatives of both parties at each step.

All ballots are tabulated on Election Day, and in the end, the systems record and show how many people voted early, how many voted using same day registration, how many voted at the polls, and how many voted by absentee ballot. Incidentally, mail-in voters can change their minds and ask that their mail-in ballot be discarded and that they be allowed to vote in-person on Election Day. This can be done by the town clerk or you can speak to one of the registrars.

We spent some time asking Howard to explain the details of handling absentee ballots in particular, given that those ballots are distributed and then received back by Goshen’s Town Clerk, who is also a candidate for State Legislature.

“When you turn that absentee ballot back in, it is in the inside envelope, sealed, and then you put that ‘inside’ envelope in the outside envelope, sealed”, Howard explained. So I think, personally, it's very hard to mess with an absentee ballot, because nobody opens it until the absentee ballot counters open it. And this is specific to absentee ballot rules.” She further clarified by instructing,  “If that ballot is just put in the outer envelope without it being first put in the “inside” envelope and is not signed by the voter, the ballot is not counted. Howard also advised that someone other than the Town Clerk herself would be handling the absentee ballots this year.

Of Note…

Finally, we asked Howard: When you hear that someone isn't going to vote and their comments are, “well, I don't like either one” or” what's the difference? My vote's not going to count anyway.” What would you tell them to encourage them to vote?

Howard: “I understand if you don't like either candidate, but you're really sending a message if you don't vote at all. My thing is, I'm a history person, so I always think about what this country went through to be this country. What these people gave up for all of us to have the right to vote…what women went through to have the vote. What  everybody went through to have the vote. Black people, minorities. … just to be able to have this America and that we can vote for our leaders. I think people have really forgotten that, and that's part of the reason we are where we are now, because people say, it's not really gonna matter.”

“Everybody’s (vote) matters. I mean, it matters. And … my whole thing is, you cannot complain if you do not vote. But also, people should know that elections have been swung by one or two votes. Look at the vote last June. One vote! And so, if you don't think your vote matters, you should listen to the returns on television or radio to see how close these communities were in their support for these candidates. So by not voting, you're removing yourself from history.”

You are not using that vote to say, “I may not like this guy or this gal, but I do like what they stand for. And if they're saying that, I'll hold their feet to the fire, but I'm going to vote for the idea.”