Maskless on Election Day? State to roll out ‘curbside’ plan

If anyone shows up at polls without a mask on Nov. 3, for any reason, the moderators won’t bar them from voting. Instead, the voters could be escorted out of the building by poll workers who would then supervise the handling of their ballots outside.

That’s what Secretary of the State Denise Merrill will announce this week in late-breaking guidelines for the coronavirus pandemic, based on her and her staff ’s interpretation of election laws.

Unlike, say, managers at a grocery store who can bar maskless customers, polling moderators can’t, under state law, require a mask as a condition of voting. Over the next couple of days, curbside voting protocols will be given to all Connecticut voting officials this week, making clearer a policy that varied across the state during the August primaries.

“It’s much better than shutting down a polling place so one voter could percolate through,” said Bethel Republican Registrar of

Voters Timothy Beeble.

He was planning on giving unmasked voters the option of casting their ballots in otherwiseempty high school gyms.

Merrill’s guidelines will call for poll workers to offer a face covering to the maskless citizens, most likely at or near the entrance to the poll.

“What we can do is strongly encourage people to wear masks,” said Gabe Rosenberg, chief legal counsel for the secretary of the state. “If they refuse to put on a face mask, then poll workers can bring the ballot out to them at the curb.”

Rosenberg said the key is to not stand in the way of people’s right to vote. For practical purposes, if an unmasked voter is not being aggressive but refuses to leave and vote curbside, election officials are most likely to shepherd them through the line, to the tabulator and back out again as quickly as possible.

And anyone who’s belligerent and disruptive can face a misdemeanor arrest under state law, as in any election.

“This is news to me,” said

Stratford Republican Registrar Louis DeCilio said of the curbside protocols. “It seems to me the secretary of the state is playing it by ear. This may create a whole new problem. People might want to be curbside because it’s a rainy day.”

DeCilio conceded the pandemic is causing election officials to make up rules as they go along. “Some of her issues have been fly-by-night,” said DeCilio, whose staff on normal election evening finish counting ballots after 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. With thus rule, he said, “It becomes quite an evening. At what point does this actually end?”

Election Day is expected to bring larger crowds to the polls than what most cities and towns say in the Aug. 11 primaries, so managing social distancing will be more critical — although lines should be quelled by an estimated half or even more fo all voters casting ballots by mail.

“Please wear your mask, Rosenberg said “Poll workers tend to be more vulnerable to COVID because of their age. You should want them to be safe.”

DeCilio and Beeble said their voter crews will have a full set of personal protective equipment, including face masks and plastic shields. Cleaners will regularly sanitize ballot stations.

Beeble said the contingency plan in Bethel, pending the forthcoming rules from Merrill, was to clear the polling places of all but a few essential poll workers to watch over an unmasked voter and get their ballot into the tabulator as quickly as possible. He noted that state law limits curbside voting to people who are incapacitated.

Bethel has five districts that cast ballots at three locations for its 12,800 registered voters.

Since the primary, Beeble said, the town has created two new positions at each poll: a sanitizer to wipe down surfaces in the privacy booths, and a social distance monitor to help keep voters six feet away from each other tpo offer masks to voters without them. He seemed relieved that clearing out the polling areas would no longer be an option.

DeCilio said that signs will ask Stratford’s 37,000 voters to wear masks and those without a face covering would be offered one. He had planned to keep the unmasked at a social distance and process them as quickly as possible. Each voter will get a short pencil, typical of the kind given out at golf courses, to complete ballots and take home as a souvenir.

Cheri Quickmire, executive director of Common Cause in Connecticut, said Tuesday that protecting voters and election employees is of paramount importance.

“We don’t want people risking their health who are working at the polls or coming to cast their vote,” she said. “We want people feeling safe at the polls. People who feel they shouldn’t wear a mask can go curbside.” She said that poll moderators have the responsibility in reporting incidents of disruptions to police. State election law cites that unauthorized people at the polls can be arrested on Class C misdemeanors, punishable by three months in jail and $500 fines.