Systems in place to prevent state residents voting twice

There were nearly 900,000 votes cast in the 2016 presidential election in Connecticut. Usually, absentee ballots make up only about 8 percent of the total votes but, this year, it could be 60 percent or more.

That’s a relatively conservative estimate of 540,000 absentee ballots cast in Connecticut.

President Donald Trump and others have suggested the tsunami of mail-in ballots is an opportunity for malfeasance. Last week, the president once again told his supporters to vote twice, as a way to test the integrity of the system.

“Let them send it in and let them go vote, and if their system’s as good as they say it is, then obviously they won’t be able to vote,” the president said during a press briefing, The New York Times reported. “If it isn’t tabulated, they’ll be able to vote.”

That can’t happen, at least in Connecticut, Gabe Rosenberg explained.

Rosenberg, a spokesman for Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, said that what matters is when an absentee ballot is received, before or after 5 p.m. on the day before the election (Monday, Nov. 2).

In either case, the system is designed so that no voter can cast two ballots.

Ballot received before 5 p.m., Nov. 2

Every mail-in ballot is printed on special paper, with special ink to prevent forgery, and each ballot is numerically keyed to a specific voter.

There are books in every polling place (called “poll books”) and, if your ballot is received before 5 p.m. on the day before the election, “there will be a notation next to your name in the Election Day poll book indicating that you have already voted by absentee ballot,” Rosenberg said.

Every voter who arrives at the polls on Election Day is logged in the poll book, and if the local clerk has already received a ballot for that voter it will be noted.

“If you come to the polling place, you will be turned away,” Rosenberg said.

Ballot received after 5 p.m., Nov. 2

This year, for the first time, the state issued absentee ballots for every voter in Connecticut. Westport Town Clerk Patricia Strauss said many voters are holding on to those ballots, waiting to see how bad the coronavirus pandemic is on Election Day.

“They're getting a paper ballot and plan to hold it until Nov. 3 and make a decision that day,” she said.

If a mail-in ballot is received after 5 p.m. on the day before the election, it won’t be counted and certified until a bit later.

“If you vote by absentee ballot and your ballot is received after 5 p.m. on the day before the election, your absentee ballot will be held until it can be checked against the Election Day poll book,” Rosenberg said.

Any mail-in ballot submitted by a voter who cast a ballot in person will simply not be counted.

“Your absentee ballot will only be counted if you did not vote in person in the polling place,” Rosenberg said.