Hamden criticized over locked ballot box

HAMDEN — Concerns about voting accessibility boiled over after the absentee ballot dropbox installed in a southern area of town was found locked.

The town installed a ballot box at the Keefe Community Center late Monday, Town Clerk

“Let me be very clear: that is wrong — legally and morally.”

State Rep. Michael D’Agostino, D-Hamden

Vera Morrison said, after “location, security camera and lighting concerns were met.”

It is in addition to two more ballot boxes placed at Government Center.

The boxes are meant to receive absentee ballot applications in addition to voting ballots come October, according to the regulations from the Secretary of the State’s office.

But soon after one was installed at the Keefe center, residents voiced concerns about the box being locked.

The Hamden Democratic Town Committee called on the town to unlock it immediately the day after it was installed, to make voting accessible for all residents — as the absentee ballot applications also can be placed in the boxes.

This was the first ballot box

installed on the southern side of Hamden, a densely populated area of town that is significantly represented by people of color.

Morrison said she received the box keys late Tuesday and personally opened the box Wednesday morning for receiving absentee applications.

“It’s open for business and I’m glad to serve the southern residents of Hamden,” Morrison said.

Residents can also mail in their ballot applications in the postagefree

return envelope provided by the Secretary of the State.

State Rep. Michael D’Agostino, D-Hamden, wrote in an email to Mayor Curt B. Leng and Morrison Tuesday about his concern regarding the locked ballot box.

“Let me be very clear: that is wrong — legally and morally,” D’Agostino said.

“The Secretary of State’s office has twice written to town clerks to advise them that these boxes must be used to receive applications and ballots . . . Not opening the box for applications constitutes, to me, and however innocently motivated — voter disenfranchisement of the people in Southern Hamden,” the lawmaker said.

D’Agostino said he is advocating in the General Assembly for more resources to town for handling absentee applications, but that understaffing isn’t an excuse to prevent people from using the box.

Morrison said this was not voter disenfranchisement or an attempt to suppress voters.

The boxes also were used during Connecticut’s August primary voting.

The ballots will be mailed Oct. 2 and after that the box will be able to receive ballots, Morrision said.