New Haven ‘No. 1 in complaints’ about absentee ballots, voters, officials demand answers
NEW HAVEN — New Haven’s liaison with the Secretary of the State’s office said the City Clerk’s office’s handling of absentee ballots has generated the most complaints of any municipality.
“They are inundated and busy, but so is everyone else. I don’t like to hear that New Haven is number one in complaints,” Christine Bartlett-Josie said. She said she also attempted to get into the clerk’s office, as she was doing her rounds as an official, but was not allowed to, as the office is closed to the public.
“Every other town is letting me in, but not New Haven,” she said during an election workshop of the City Services and Environmental Policy committee of the Board of Alders.
Complaints from voters reflected frustration in not getting their ballots and not receiving feedback as to where they are in the process.
David Hirsch, a Westville resident who works at the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning at Yale University, said neither he nor his husband, Lev Bronstein, received absentee ballots for the August primary and neither has yet received a ballot for the general election, despite requesting them soon after they received applications from the Secretary of the State’s office.
He said his 89-year-old and 92-year-old in-laws also requested absentee ballots early, but only this week did his mother-in-law’s name show up in the Central Voting Registration System (CVR) that the request had been processed on Oct. 2 and she should receive a ballot by Oct. 9. She hasn’t yet. Neither of them received ballots for the August primary.
Neither City Clerk Michael Smart nor Democratic Registrar of Voters Shannel Evans appeared at the virtual workshop, but emailed answers that night to previous questions. Neither attended a previous workshop, saying they were too busy.
Bartlett-Josie, who is the secretary of the state’s election contact for the 3rd District towns, said she believes both should have attended the meeting, as did Alder Abby Roth, D-7. “I know they are busy, but this is part of their responsibilities,” Roth said.
Roth said the written answers just brought more questions and what was needed was a dialogue, with just over two weeks left before Election Day. Several said they are hearing complaints from their constituents; Bartlett-Josie said she also is personally hearing complaints.
Roth said the city clerk should put something on the city website telling people how many ballots have been sent out, how many have been received and what still has to be processed. She said the link to the CVR also should be put up. She wondered what would happen if someone were to get another person’s ballot but didn’t realize that.
Roth said Smart should encourage absentee ballot holders to cast them before 5 p.m. Oct. 30, when the city will be allowed to remove the outer envelopes as a way to speed the counting process.
Smart was asked whether he needed volunteers for this. He said he could use them to help with the volume of phone calls and they should forward their names and hours of availability to his office
Alder Anna Festa, D-10, who led the workshop, said voters should be treated as if this is the first time they are voting, because for many it is the first time using an absentee ballot, given concerns about crowds and COVID-19.
“It is important that the process is done properly and correctly and I cannot stress enough we are here to help in any capacity whatsoever,” she said, directing her comments to the registrar’s and clerk’s offices. She then advised voters to call the alders if they continue to have problems.
For weeks the clerk’s office has been using its own software to process requests for absentee ballots and to send out the ballots. It then separately puts that information into the CVR where voters can track when their ballot was sent.
When there is a lag in putting the information into the CVR, Gabe Rosenberg, spokesman for the Secretary of the State’s office, said “it is a disservice to the voters.”
Smart Thursday said the city’s IT department and the state’s IT recently worked on resolving that, but it was unclear whether the office is still using two systems. Bartlett-Josie said once the city enters information into the CVR it should pop up in 24 hours.
From the time the ballots could be mailed beginning Oct. 2, New Haven has been far behind other towns in the system, according to the CVR. As of Wednesday the system said New Haven had processed 8,167 requests for ballots, while it showed 7 had been received back from voters. Rosenberg conceded that can’t be right.
Smart, in an email Thursday, said his office has received approximately 13,500 absentee ballot applications; approximately 10,000 ballots have been sent to voters and some 2,000 ballots have been received.
Other smaller towns as of Wednesday showed that about one-third to one-half of the ballots processed have been sent back to the town clerks, according to the CVR.
West Hartford had sent out 17,456 ballots and received 8,935; Hamden sent out 10,356 and has 5,413 ballots in hand; Fairfield sent 13,445 and received 5,548 back; Cheshire processed 6,740 and got 3,469 back; Branford processed 6,846 and had voters send back 3,933 ballots so far.
Bridgeport, however, while processing 11,790 requests, has only gotten 475 back. Hartford has processed 9,800 and the CVR showed the city clerk has received 3,564 back.
The totals as of Wednesday reported by the state are 591,209 ballots sent with 267,011 back at the city clerk offices for tabulation on Election Day.
Hirsch, the Westville resident, said when he called the clerk’s office two of the three numbers on the website did not work. He said when he got through, the woman never took his name and told him to call back the next week.
Smart Thursday said the correct number is 203-946-8839 and IT is addressing the phone problems, while he has assigned more new workers to handle the high volume of calls. He said he has hired 9 additional people and is in the process of hiring more.
“I’ve lost faith in the entire process but don’t have enough information even to pinpoint where my disappointment should be directed. ... I’m inclined to blame our local government’s being overwhelmed by demand they’ve never handled before, and possibly incompetence on the part of our elected officers,” Hirsch said. He plans now to vote in person, if the ballot doesn’t come through in time.
Bartlett-Josie said since the registrar and the city clerk are elected officials, her office can only suggest solutions. The offices are not under the mayor’s jurisdiction, answering only to the voters.
“It’s embarrassing to our city and a tragedy for our nation that thousands, maybe even millions, of voters will never have the opportunity this year to make their preferences known, because of our government’s apparent incapacity to pivot and find ways of keeping the lights on during the current health crisis,” Hirsch said.
James Berger said he was upset that the ballots are not going out efficiently, but he was willing to mask up and walk up to Edgewood School to vote. “But the state really ought to get this procedure down. I think it will increasingly become as much a norm as in-person voting,” he said.
Mike Melanson said he put the ballot application in a mailbox around the corner from his house at the end of September, while his partner sent hers in a week before, has received her ballot and put it in the dropbox at 200 Orange St.
He said he has yet to receive his. For the primary, Melanson said they put their ballots in the dropbox. “Perhaps that expedited the process,” he said. In the end he asked: “Why doesn’t CT have early voting?”
Smart said absentee ballots can be requested up to the end of business on Nov. 2. For the primary, he held voter registration sessions several days before that election, where residents filled out the application and immediately filled out a ballot. He said a decision on that for the general election has not been determined.
Evans, in her emailed update to the alders, said they are close to bringing in 600 workers to man the polls, with extra workers for the Election Day Registration, which in the past has been chaotic. She said they will have 20 computers with direct access to the Secretary of the State’s office and the EDR workers will take the registrants through the entire process, rather than splitting it up.
There will be workers going through the line starting to register voters as they wait. There will be social distancing markers and clear signage. Evans agreed to have workers come in on the Saturday before the election to do a run-through to make sure everything is ready. There will be 20 parking spaces on Church Street and 15 on Orange Street for voters, with greeters showing them where to go for the EDR or to cast a ballot in Ward 7.
Evans said workers have been trained on directing voters to curbside where they can cast a ballot if they refuse to wear a mask, as determined by the secretary of the state. Two people will escort them out. She said there will be a separate line for Yale students, who in the past have been the biggest group to register on Election Day.
Roth said she continues to be concerned with the large number of voters entering the Hall of Records to vote, at the same time absentee voters may be dropping off their ballots.
She wants to know whether there are extra workers in case people get sick and asked whether two workers having to leave to escort a maskless voter would disrupt the EDR flow. She continues to ask for a clearer connection to polling places on the website.
Alder Steve Winter, D-21, said he also was disappointed that Evans and Smart were not at the workshop. “We need to talk through some of these issues in more detail,” particularly the EDR. “More than one paragraph.”
This article is part of ProPublica’s Electionland project, of which Hearst Connecticut Media’s CTInsider is a collaborator. Share your election experience by texting the word VOTE to 81380 or by completing this form.
Comments