Still waiting for absentee ballot applications
STAMFORD — Louise Sabia of Springdale received an application to vote by absentee ballot in the Aug. 11 primary.
But, three weeks after the Secretary of the State mailed absentee ballot applications for the Nov. 3 election, Sabia still hasn’t gotten one.
Neither has her husband. Neither has her daughter, who also lives in Springdale.
Neither have a number of her neighbors in the 06907 zip code.
According to the secretary of the state’s office, all registered voters in Connecticut, 2.1 million of them, were mailed absentee ballot applications between Sept. 8 and Sept. 11.
It seems they should already have arrived, Sabia said.
“This whole thing is scary,” the Stamford native said. “I’m going to vote in person, especially this time.”
Connecticut is new at large-scale voting by mail.
The percentage of state residents who use absentee ballot usually ranges from 5 percent to 7 percent, the head of the Connecticut Town Clerks Association has said. It hit 8 percent during the 2016 Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton presidential contest.
But it could rise to 80 percent on Nov. 3, according to the association.
It may be too big of a jump, Sabia said.
“There wasn’t enough time to do it
correctly,” she said.
On July 28 the state Legislature voted to expand absentee balloting for this year so that anyone wary of visiting a polling place because of COVID-19 may vote by mail instead.
That happened about a month after President Trump’s newly appointed postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, introduced changes to postal service operations that slowed mail delivery nationwide.
So far, three federal judges have ordered DeJoy to stop implementing the changes. The postal service was sued by states, including Connecticut, cities and voters’ advocacy groups that alleged that DeJoy failed to run the changes by the Postal Regulatory Commission, as federal law requires.
DeJoy is a mega-donor to Trump, who has alleged repeatedly that mail-in balloting is fraudulent and should be stopped. DeJoy told Congress he would not reinstall mail sorting equipment and would reverse other actions that led to service delays.
Amy Gibbs, a U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman, said managers are looking into the reports coming from Springdale but “will have no further comment until that check is complete.”
USPS management is working with Connecticut election officials and looks forward “to a successful general election,” Gibbs said.
“The U.S. mail serves as a secure, efficient and effective means for citizens and campaigns to participate in the electoral process, and the postal service is committed to delivering election mail in a timely manner,” she said.
Postal delays could be a reason why some voters have not received their absentee ballot applications, said Gabe Rosenberg, communications director for Secretary of the State Denise Merrill.
More likely reasons include “not actually being active registered voters” and “having mistakes in the voter registration that caused the application to be undeliverable,” Rosenberg said.
Merrill’s office has not heard widespread complaints about absentee ballot applications that did not arrive, “but of course there are people who have reported that they haven’t received the application,” Rosenberg said.
Town Clerk Lyda Ruijter said she has no widespread reports about absentee ballot applications failing to reach voters.
“I have not heard it’s a big problem, but I must say we are so busy with applications, with people sending in duplicates, that I don’t have the staffing to take phone calls,” Ruijter said. “So I may not be getting the information I would get otherwise.”
Stamford residents are sending in ballot applications they download from the state’s website, she said, and if they then receive one in the mail from the state, they send that in, too. Her office uses a system that alerts her staff when they attempt to enter a duplicate application, she said.
Rosenberg said that, at this point, anyone who needs an absentee ballot application should download and print one by visiting myvote.ct.gov/absentee. It’s a good idea to first verify your voter registration at myvote.ct.gov/lookup, he said.
Completed applications must be mailed as quickly as possible to Town Clerk, Stamford Government Center, 888 Washington Blvd., 06901. Write “AB Application” on the envelope.
To avoid possible problems with the postal service, applications may be dropped into one of four ballot boxes installed by the town clerk.
One ballot box is in the Stamford Government Center parking garage just outside the lobby doors. Another is beside the book drop boxes to the side of the Harry Bennett Branch Library, 115 Vine Road. A third is at the Yerwood Center, 90 Fairfield Ave., and the fourth is at the Lathon Wider Community Center, 137 Henry St.
By state law, ballots may be mailed 31 days before an election, which means they began going out this weekend.
Ballots will be counted only if they are received in the town clerk’ office by 8 p.m. on Election Day, which is when polls close.
In the Aug. 11 primary, the state sent out about 300,000 ballots, some of them too late for voters to use. Still, 227,000 Connecticut residents voted by absentee ballot – more than triple the 72,000 who voted in person.
It is anticipated that more than 1 million Connecticut voters will cast absentee ballots in November.
Sabia will not be among them. “I voted by absentee ballot only one time, when I was going to be in the hospital,” she said. “I just like to vote in person and see my ballot go in the box.”