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09/08/2020 12:15 PMConsidering the unprecedented number of absentee ballots, a tropical storm the week before that left more than 700,000 residents across the state without power, and the arrest of the endorsed Republican primary candidate for the 2nd Congressional District the previous day, the Aug. 11 primaries went relatively smoothly in Westbrook.
“It was a very heavy mail-in turnout and we had a relatively light number of in-person voters,” said Democratic Registrar of Voters James Crawford. “We expected that and [the results were] kind of a forgone conclusion with the exception of the Republican race for the 2nd Congressional District. All the other candidates were pretty much locked in.”
Despite his arrest on domestic violence charges and his announcement the next morning that he was quitting the race, Republican candidate Thomas Gilmer won the initial count by just 26 votes in the contest to challenge Democrat Joe Courtney, who has held the seat held 2007. The margin of just over one-tenth of one percent triggered an automatic recount and Gilmer’s Republican opponent, Justin Anderson, won by a margin of 81 votes.
The confluence of factors served to extend the primary.
“Because of the storm, the governor extended the period of mail-in ballots” to Aug. 13 in order to provide time to receive and count ballots postmarked by the Aug. 11 primary, Crawford said.
“In the end it went pretty smoothly,” he continued, adding that he believes both poll workers and in-person voters felt safe that day. Precautions included plexiglass installed at voter check-in tables and face shields available to all poll workers.
“We were as well prepared as we could be,” Crawford said. “It worked out fine.”
General Election: Tuesday, Nov. 3
The state is expecting an even larger number of mail-in ballots to be cast in the general election and Crawford expects about 70 percent of the ballots cast in Westbrook to be absentee.
As of Aug. 3, there were 4,650 registered voters in Westbrook, according to Crawford.
“In a typical presidential election, we can expect 85 percent or so of those folks to vote,” he said.
Applications for absentee ballots will be mailed to all eligible voters in mid-September by the Secretary of the State’s Office. All voters may check the COVID-19 excuse on the application. Aapplications can be mailed back to the voter’s town hall or dropped in secure dropboxes at town hall. The applications will be processes by town election officials who will send the actual ballot to the voter.
By state law, ballots can be mailed to voters no earlier than Friday, Oct. 2, which is 30 days before the election.
Voters can mail the application, which is pre-addressed and requires no postage, or place it in the secure ballot box installed behind the Mulvey Municipal Center, on the sidewalk adjacent to the parking lot.
Making Sure it’s Secure
Crawford believes the town’s ballot drop box will be a great help to both registrars and voters. The box resembles a mailbox, but is white with gold lettering.
Voters “don’t even have to get out of their vehicle,” he said. “They can just roll down the window and pop [the ballot] right in the box.”
Leading up to the election, the town clerk will empty the ballot box three or four times a day and, on Election Day itself, every couple of hours, according to Crawford. Ballots can be deposited in the box until 8 p.m. that evening, when the polls close.
The drop boxes are secure.
“They’re anchored into the ground, bolted, as secure as a postal service mailbox,” he said.
Vandalism of the ballot box would incur a significant fine in addition to the replacement cost.
There are also procedures in place to ensure that no one votes both by mail and in person.
“Each ballot has a bar code,” said Crawford. “That bar code is associated with the voter...We have a paper record of that on file.”
On Election Day, the town clerk will provide the registrars with the list of people who have voted absentee; the list will be updated throughout the day.
“Everyone who sends in their ballot before Nov. 3 will be checked off on our voter checklist,” Crawford explained. “So if a person walks in and we see they’ve voted absentee,” they’ll be told there’s a record of their having voted.
Mistakes can be made, and an in-person voter has the right to cast a provisional ballot, which will be counted only once it’s been established that the voter has not voted by mail.
“There’s a paper trail for everything,” Crawford said, noting the process is regularly checked to ensure it’s working. “Thirty towns got notice yesterday that they’re being audited for their practices in the primary.”
In accordance with Connecticut law, the Secretary of the State’s office randomly selected for auditing five percent of the precincts that used optical scanners in the primary election. A hand count of ballots will be matched against the machine tally.
“We know...there are foreign bad actors that are trying to break into [U.S. election] systems,” said Crawford. “You cannot break into the system and have it be effective if there’s a paper trail.”
Counting Ballots
Westbrook has traditionally counted ballots in the center of the Multi-Purpose Room, where voting takes place, according to Crawford.
“On either side of the room are the [voter sign-in tables] and the little voting booths for District 1 and District 2,” he explained. In the center of the room is the moderator, the assistant moderators, and the ballot counters.
“The beauty of this is we can begin to count [absentee ballots] as early as 8 in the morning, when the polls open,” he said.
In previous years, with far fewer absentee ballots, the town has usually begun counting them later in the morning.
It’s possible “that we can begin to count prior to Election Day,” Crawford said, “but that’s a decision by the state.”
State and Federal Help
Many of Westbrook’s poll workers have been serving for years, are older, and particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. This has been a concern for the registrars this year, Crawford explained. Fortunately, enough residents have come forward to help, both veterans of the polls and new staff.
“The primary [was] like a dry run for us for training new people,” he said, and the registrars were satisfied with poll workers’ performance that day.
State and federal money is available to reimburse the town for personal protective equipment and other supplies, such as plexiglass barriers, for both the primary and the general election. The town has purchased two new computers and 50 percent of their cost will be reimbursed by the state, according to Crawford.
The state “has promised to be there if we need additional personnel” on Election Day, he said. “They’ve promised to back us up if we feel we’re short of certain kinds of supplies.”
Voters can register to vote or check whether they’re registered to vote at portal.ct.gov/SOTS. Those who registered after Aug. 26 can request an absentee ballot from the Westbrook town clerk or fill out an application online at the same website.