Registrars worry about voter turnout
Races for Board of Finance, Board of Education, Board of Representatives all affect tax bills
STAMFORD — Things don’t look good for Tuesday’s election.
It’s for city races only, so it may end up one of those elections voters forget.
Republican Registrar of Voters Lucy Corelli said she’s dismayed by what she’s heard from visitors to her office.
“They say, ‘Oh, we have an election?’ Even though we mailed out thousands of cards saying there is a municipal election on Nov. 5,” Corelli said.
Democratic Registrar Ron Malloy said it’s a shame.
“These are the pocketbook elections,” Malloy said of Tuesday’s races for Board of Finance, Board of Education and one seat on the Board of Representatives, all of which affect tax bills. “But no one pays attention to them because they don’t have the emotional pull of presidential elections.”
Or even state elections, said Town Clerk Lyda Ruijter, who’s in charge of distributing absentee ballots.
“We’ve issued 710 absentee ballots so far,” Ruijter said. “Last year was a governor’s race and we issued 3,000. I think people are not aware there is an election this year.”
Don’t tell Democrats Geoff Alswanger, David Kooris and Mary Lou Rinaldi, or Republicans Fritz Blau, Andrew Krill and Christopher Woodside , all running for three seats on the Board of Finance.
And don’t tell the seven people running for three seats on the Board of Education — Democrats Jennienne Burke, Daniel Dauplaise and Fritz Chery; Republicans Nicola Tarzia, Margaret Feeney and Becky Hamman; and Green Party candidate Rolf Maurer. A fourth school board seat, recently vacated, also needs filling. For that, Democrat Jack Bryant is up against Republican Eva Maldonado.
Voters also must fill a District 14 seat on the Board of Representatives, which opened last year after the death of Gabe DeLuca. On Tuesday Republican Anthony Spadaccini, who was appointed to replace DeLuca until an election, will face off against Democrat Jeff Curtis.
“I hope people will take an interest. It’s very important to vote in municipal races,” Corelli said. “Whether 700 people come out or 7,000 or 70,000, it costs the city the same amount of money to hold an election.”
That’s about $236,000, according to the Office of Policy & Management.
Ruijter said the number of requests for absentee ballots signals poor turnout Tuesday.
“It seems like it will be low, even for a municipal election,” she said.
Malloy said he thinks maybe 21 percent of the city’s 70,993 registered voters will show up.
“That would be about 15,000 people. I don’t expect much more,” Malloy said. “We’re ready for many more. People can register on Election Day and vote immediately.”
That can be done in the registrars’ office Tuesday between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m., Malloy said. The office is on the sixth floor of Stamford Government Center, 888 Washington Blvd. Polls close at 8 p.m.
Citizens, in fact, are registering in record numbers — but the registrars think that has less to do with this year’s election and more to do with what is to come next year.
The new total, 70,993, is an alltime high, Corelli said. It includes 29,132 Democrats, 26,762 unaffiliated voters, 13,358 Republicans, 1,414 Independents, 94 Libertarians and 53 members of the Green Party, she said.
Malloy said new registrants come from all voting districts, but the highest numbers are from downtown and the South End, site of the Harbor Point redevelopment.
He said a record number of Stamford voters went to the polls during the 2016 presidential election: 52,973. But registrars anticipate a new record for the 2020 presidential election, Malloy said.
“We expect 60,000 to 65,000 people next year,” he said. “We’re spending a lot of time redrawing maps and planning for 2020. We usually have 22 districts for national races but we had to create a 23rd district. Next year the new Strawberry Hill school will be a polling site, and the Board of Education has promised we will be able to use the gym at Westover School because that district has the largest number of voters. Westover has a large parking area and there’s nowhere else in that district to do it.”
Westover is closed for mold remediation and is expected to open next fall.
Connecticut’s presidential primary is April 28.
Great care is taken to ensure fairness in elections, Ruijter said. Clerks from her office went to the registrars’ office on Sept. 11 to witness a lottery that determines the order in which candidates’ names appear on the ballot, since position near the top increases chances of winning.
Ruijter said she wrote to the U.S. Postal Service to ask that they deliver absentee ballots by hand on Election Day. USPS does not deliver mail to her office on Tuesdays, so some ballots may not make the 8 p.m. Election Day deadline, Ruijter said.
“Last year they handdelivered them but we still got 149 ballots late, and those votes weren’t counted,” she said.
Officials involved in elections also are impartial in dealings with voters, Ruijter and the registrars said.
“Sometimes they come in and ask me to recommend a candidate. I say I must remain neutral,” Ruijter said. “But I explain that there is a minority representation rule to ensure that all members of a board aren’t from the same party, so they have to evaluate every candidate.”
Malloy said he does the same.
“I tell them we don’t take sides whatsoever. We run strictly nonpartisan,” he said.
“I tell them we can’t answer those questions,” Corelli said. “I say, ‘We don’t run campaigns; we run elections.’ ”