Do we need so many of these officeholders?

TBut local registrars are the kind of thing residents get all Connecticozy about each autumn, like watching leaves die and sipping lukewarm cider. The system is so quaint. So New England. So Connecticut. So very outdated.

he bane of every editorial writer in Connecticut is Election Night. Results come in sloooowly. That makes commenting on them by deadline a nightmare. That’s why we were thrilled to learn the results in a few races by press time. Congratulations to Greenwich Republican First Selectman Fred Camillo, Norwalk Democratic Mayor Harry Rilling and New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker on being re-elected, and to Republican Dean Esposito becoming mayor of Danbury. May you govern wisely and well. Meanwhile, the mayoral race in Stamford, which has drawn national attention, wasn’t settled until midnight as absentee ballots were scrutinized to determine Democrat Caroline Simmons won a showdown with unaffiliated candidate Bobby Valentine. Who said municipal elections were boring?

Let’s give a shoutout, while we’re waiting for results, to all the good people who stepped up to run for local office. Thank you for agreeing to attend meetings that run late into the night and for trying to solve knotty problems.

We do wonder, however, if Connecticut needs so many registrars. There are, this year, 339 of them, and that’s not counting all their deputies.

This state’s law on registrars is unique. Connecticut requires every one of its 169 municipalities to elect one Democratic registrar and one Republican one. Occasionally a municipality gets a third registrar if a candidate from another party or no party at all wins more votes than the D or R. That’s how the little town of Westbrook ended up with three registrars — one Democrat, one Republican and one unaffiliated.

That’s a lot of registrars for one town and for one state. But local registrars are the kind of thing residents get all Connecticozy about each autumn, like watching leaves die and sipping lukewarm cider. The system is so quaint. So New England. So Connecticut. So very outdated.

We’re not knocking the contributions of these 339 individuals. But isn’t it worth calling a timeout to consider whether the rulebook needs to be written on a computer rather than with a quill? All those registrars for even the tiniest of towns (yes, we’re talking about your 187 residents, Union) translate to hefty office expenses for taxpayers. And it’s really just based on the idea of each party keeping an eye on its opposing number.

Of course, Connecticut’s fixation on steady habits means we also accept that there’s no rush to make election results official. In an era when you can get next-day delivery for everything from diapers to car tires, Connecticut’s certification date in 2020 was Dec. 3. (Delaware’s was two days after the election.)

To be fair, it did take the entire nation a few days to figure out who won the presidential election last year because of all those mail-in votes. To quote the eventual winner, Joe Biden, “Democracy is sometimes messy.”

So, yes, the registrars deserve more than cold leftover pizza and an e-mail hug for all the hard work they’ve done. But maybe it’s time to think about a new process.