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10/04/2022 01:50 PMWith the announcement last month that a revamped Charter will be heading to referendum in November, the revision proposal raises several points that town officials want voters to be aware of. There will be two questions on the referendum concerning Charter revisions — one question regarding a change in term length for selectpersons, and the second question focuses on approving the entirety of the revisions.
However, officials point out, there will also be a third question on the referendum concerning a proposed change to the State Constitution, an issue wholly separate from the Town Charter. The State referendum question concerns early voting and town officials want Madison voters to familiarize themselves with the questions so they are fully informed on election day.
First Selectwoman Peggy Lyons said her office wants to ensure voters understand how the ballots will be set up and what the individual referendum questions from the respective entities entail.
“We want to make sure people are aware of this. One thing I think that is important to highlight is that the first question on the ballot will be from the State, and that question will address whether voters want early voting in Connecticut,” Lyons said. “So, our questions on the Charter will be questions number two and three. And that might be confusing for people, because unfortunately when we draft our questions, we don’t, as a town, we don’t get to see what the State questions look like. So, we want to get the information out to the public that the questions on the ballot. Number one will be the state early voting question and number two and number three are the specific town charter questions.”
According to the National Conference of State legislatures, four states — Alabama, Connecticut, Mississippi, and New Hampshire — do not offer pre-Election Day in-person voting options for all voters, though they may offer pre-Election Day in-person voting options for eligible absentee voters. The question from the State will be asking voters to approve or reject an amendment to the State Constitution that will allow early voting in the Nutmeg State.
Below is a facsimile of the language and how the three ballot questions will appear when voters go to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 8:
1) “Shall the Constitution of the State be amended to permit the general assembly to provide for early voting?”
2) “Shall the proposed Charter Amendment to section 4.1 of the Town’s Charter changing the term of the First Selectman and all other members of the Board of Selectman to four (4) years, as set forth in the Charter Revision Commission’s Final Report and accepted by the Board of Selectman, be adopted?”
3) “Shall the remaining proposed Charter Amendments contained in the Charter Revision Commission’s Final Report, which Report was accepted by the Board of Selectman on July 28, 2022, be accepted?”
According to Lyons, this will allow voters who might want to approve the revisions, but oppose the term extensions to vote separately on each measure.
“This is a big deal for the town and how we will proceed in the future, so we want voters to understand the questions,” Lyons said.
A draft of the Charter, including a red-line version that clearly delineates the changes to the document can be found at madisonct.org.