Banisch: Understanding All the Processes
I’d like to talk today about elections and some of the problems they pose. Last week we had mid-term elections, which are not municipal and not presidential, and in spite of trying to get things to be as uncomplicated as possible, we ran into some problems. None of them affected the outcome of the election, but they affected people’s perceptions of the system.
Absentee ballots. The process for getting an absentee ballot is probably more complicated than it should be, but it’s all governed by state law, so we don’t have any choice. The easiest way to do an absentee ballot is to come into Town Hall, go to the Town Clerk’s Office, fill it out, and hand it in. If you request an absentee ballot, you have to send in your request, have an application mailed to you, mail it back, and then have your ballot mailed to you after that. At this point, you still have not cast your vote. You need to return the ballot to the Town Clerk’s Office before Election Day. Many people in this past election, more than 1,100, successfully completed that process, whether they came in person to vote at the Town Clerk’s Office or had one mailed to them.
However, any resident who attempted to get an absentee ballot after noon on the Friday before the election was unable to do so. These residents must have been unaware that we have adopted new hours at Town Hall, despite efforts to publicize this shift in hours. For anyone still unaware, the town adopted new hours in August and went about advertising the change in several ways, including by putting out signs in several parts of town, posting them on our website, posting them on the entrance ways at Town Campus, and posting them on the First Selectman’s Facebook page; there was also an article in The Source about it. These are the kinds of things that cause misconceptions about the process.
We’re doing many things to inform the public about voting rules and regulations. The most groundbreaking is a video that the town clerk will be making to explain the process for getting an absentee ballot, including instructions for obtaining one, completing it correctly, and returning it so it can be counted. We want everyone to have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote. That starts by understanding all the processes involved.