This morning, Gov. Ned Lamont, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz and Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas held a press conference to remind Connecticut voters about early voting availability for the upcoming November election, as well as to inform them of how to do so. The upcoming elections will mark Connecticut’s first General Election in which early voting is allowed.
“For me, I’m really happy that we finally arrived at this moment, because it’s been really gratifying for me to see how the entire state has pulled together to make sure we had a successful rollout of early voting,” said Thomas. “We were a little nervous that we’d have a poll worker shortage, but this year, over 2,8000 people have signed up to serve as poll workers.”
Thomas, who herself requested an additional $5 million from the General Fund this February to assist municipal governments in their implementation of early voting, acknowledged the high amount of effort put in by municipal officials in ensuring that the process ran smoothly. Thomas credited the state’s registrars and town clerks for working “collaboratively and diligently,” to ensure that this year’s early voting measures were implemented successfully. Thomas noted that many of these workers did so “tirelessly” and without additional pay.
“We wanted to remind voters that this is the first presidential election in Connecticut where we will have early voting,” said Bysiewicz. “So many people vote in presidential elections in our state, we wanted to give families the opportunity to balance their work and family and professional commitments, to give them the opportunity to choose when it was best for them.”
Lt. Gov. Bysiewicz, who herself served as Secretary of State from 1999 to 2011, said that it was “exciting” that there would be 14 days of early voting prior to Nov. 5th. Thomas and Bysiewicz reminded voters that early voting would begin on Oct. 21, with most municipalities’ early voting locations being located at town or city hall, and encouraged voters to call their municipal hall if they aren’t sure of their early voting location. Locations will be open to any registered voter in the state, and will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day, with extended hours on Tuesday, Oct. 29 and Thursday, Oct. 31, when locations will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Election Day hours will be from 6 a.m to 8 p.m.
Bysiewicz also reminded UConn students that their early voting center would be located at UConn’s bookstore and that voters need to bring their IDs to early voting stations. She also reminded voters that a constitutional amendment regarding absentee ballots will be included on the backs of each ballot.
Thomas took time to state that measures have been taken to ensure that early voting is “just as safe and secure as all other forms of voting”, and said that early votes will not be counted until Election Day. She advised residents to access the state’s digital voter guide for more information on this election cycle’s candidates, as well as information on how to vote. Before the leaders took to addressing questions, Lamont took to the podium to encourage voters who may be afraid of voting to go out and do so.
“There’s a lot of loose talk out there in the campaign world, I think sometimes it could have the effect of discouraging people from voting,” said Lamont. “Don’t have any concerns. It’s a big deal, your vote really matters.”
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I don’t believe CT taxpayers are “excited” or “happy” for the waste of $5 million to implement early voting. Obviously.
Agree, Carole, that the cost is burdensome to taxpayers, particularly due to the legislature not budgeting to cover the cost that will be born by the individual the communities. Also the duration of early voting is way too many days, also burdening the local communities to staff for the duration of voting days (including both regular staff and temporary staff who have to serve long hours each voting day).
Out of state UConn students have a unique advantage in this presidential election. They can vote in Connecticut and also in the home state they reside in via absentee ballot. Yes Connecticut now allows out of state students enrolled in Connecticut colleges to vote in Connecticut even though they are not residents. One of the many flaws in Connecticut’s voting system.
I concur with you, Michael, that this is a bad decision to allow college students to vote in the city/town where their school is located if that is NOT their hometown. Non-residents should not be able to influence the decisions on who represents the community in elected office nor should they be able to commit the residents to paying for bonds on the ballot, especially when the significant numbers of students could be influenced to vote as a block against the interest of the permanent residents.
Agree, Michael, that if the school is NOT in the hometown of the student (where they pay property taxes) they should not be allowed to influence who represents the community in government nor should they be able to vote on referendums that commit the taxpayers to an undesirable financial burden or other special vote decisions. Students don’t even have to register their cars [to change from an out-of-state registration] to pay taxes here while using our streets and roads.
They do not seem too concerned about the cheating that takes place in Bridgeport nor have they really addressed it.
At one point in Connecticut’s history, machines with curtains were purchased for elections. The machine voting system was implemented for a purpose. The purpose was to prevent fraudulent voting via the paper ballot system. Fast forward to 2000, and the “hanging chad” fiasco in Florida. Bush won the election by a Supreme Court decision. The Democrats were furious and instituted a computerized system with paper ballots, the same system we have today. COVID was the excuse for early voting, along with no proof of citizenship, and now unlimited access to absentee voting. All of these changes from the year 2000 and beyond equals FRAUD. The entire system of voting in the state of Connecticut needs to be overhauled from the top down. It’s too ripe for fraud as was proven by “Bridgeport Wanda”.
I agree. There is a great need for transparency in our “democratic voting system”. You are right the “Bridgeport Wanda” video is a good sample.
The right to vote, do not make a Democracy.