As of Friday, the town of West Hartford had received about 2,000 of 10,500 absentee ballots requested for Tuesday’s primary elections.
We depend on your support. Donate to Connecticut Public today.
Town Clerk Essie Labrot says that makes for some daunting math: Over 8,000 ballots could be coming in, making it difficult to have results by midnight on primary night.
“What’s going to happen on Tuesday, if we get in 2,000 ballots on Tuesday, that means counting those ballots is going to take that much longer. We’re gonna have to open those envelopes, stamp them in, put them in the system,” Labrot said. “Then the registrars are gonna get them and have to open those inner envelopes and put them through the tabulator.”
Town clerks are responsible for more than absentee ballots. They handle birth, death, marriage and other certificates. Labrot’s job right now is to verify ballots against the applications. From there, the registrars do the actual counting of votes.
“Then the registrars are given all those 10,000 ballots, and they have to verify that the number we gave them per district is correct so that they can print their books,” Labrot said. “So when they go to the polls, the polls have all the little A’s on them, signifying that that voter voted by absentee, and that prevents anybody from voting twice.”
Before polling opens, the registrar should have a list of those who have already voted by absentee ballot. Votes still coming in by absentee will continue to be counted and handed over to the registrar on election day.
If voters have submitted an absentee ballot and still go to the polls, their absentee ballot will be voided.
Labrot supported the state’s decision to provide drop boxes and mail absentee ballot applications to every eligible registered voter in the state.
Still, Labrot said the Secretary of the State’s office could have made things a little smoother by consulting town clerks more often while developing the absentee ballot process for this primary.
Ali Oshinskie is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms.
