New Haven needs a voters’ bill of rights

Last Tuesday marked the fourth election in four years in which New Haven failed its voters.

To their immense credit, New Haveners voted in record numbers despite widespread equipment malfunctions, optical-scan machines rejecting wet ballots, and chaos with “same-day voter registration” (EDR) that made the DMV look like a model of user-friendliness and convenience. A double-sided ballot, unavoidable because of two ballot questions, did not help matters.

Tuesday’s meltdown was, in the words of Yogi Berra, déjà vu all over again.

In the 2016 presidential primary, voters in Wards 3, 10, 18 and 25 were sent postcards listing the wrong polling place. In that year’s general election, multiple polling places ran out of ballots, moderators overslept and arrived late to their stations, and the Hall of Records polling place (ironically the building where the register of voters office is located) experienced wait times exceeding three hours.

In 2014, more than 150 people wanting to vote were heartbreakingly turned away at City Hall because of four-hour lines for EDR.

These repeated failures, which undermine the social contract and are a form of ‘soft’ voter suppression, have highlighted the need for a New Haven “voters’ bill of rights” that would set forth the following protections: No one

Restoring and maintaining the confidence of voters should be treated as a fundamental function of city government like fighting fires or picking up trash.

should wait more than one hour at their polling place to vote.

Same-day registration should not take longer than two hours. Doublesided ballots and polling place changes between odd- and even-number years cannot be eliminated but should be minimized. No poll worker should request a form of identification that exceeds what is required by statute. Informational signage at polls should be highly visible and clearly written in English and Spanish. Voting information — including sample ballots — on the city’s website should be accurate, up-to-date, and easy to find (following recommendations of a 2016 report by Connecticut Citizen Election Audit showing that voting information on municipal websites, including New Haven’s, is woefully incomplete). Postelection audits must be transparent and properly noticed.

Treating these as goals or aspirations is not enough. Restoring and maintaining the confidence of voters should be treated as a fundamental function of city government like fighting fires or picking up trash.

To be clear, the objective is not perfection. High-turnout elections are a complex administrative challenge with many moving parts and unforeseen problems inevitably arise, such as soggy ballots clogging up optical scanners. That is why Connecticut should permit early voting and no-excuse absentee ballots. Early voting not only makes casting a ballot more convenient, it also takes some of the pressure off elections officials so they can better address unexpected crises that present themselves on election day. Some form of early voting already exists in two-thirds of states.

New Haven’s registrars have already called for a “task force” to address Election Day failures. What is troubling and disappointing is that a similar postelection ‘autopsy’ took place in 2016, and many of the excellent recommendations for improved signage, communication, and flexible staffing that emerged from numerous public meetings and aldermanic hearings were never adopted. That was a lost opportunity for embracing a concrete set of solutions and best practices that we cannot afford to miss again.

New Haveners deserve a voting experience that is pleasant and convenient, not a nauseating one that looks and feels like going to the DMV.