ELECTING TO HELP
Volunteers appear in droves to help Stamford clerk process ballot applications
STAMFORD — In a tiny room on the third floor of City Hall, two dozen file boxes made of white cardboard are arranged by voting district on shelves.
They hold thousands and thousands of absentee ballot applications.
So many Stamford residents are requesting mail-in ballots to vote in the Nov. 3 presidential election that the town clerk, who processes them, had to make space a few floors up from her lobby-level office and move the
operation there.
As the applications rolled in, it became clear the volume was too much for the town clerk’s staff. When the applications kept coming, it became clear that it was too much even for a staff augmented by eight temporary workers Town Clerk Lyda Ruijter hired with the help of a state grant.
Still, the stream of applications didn’t quit.
Low on money and space, Ruijter knew what to do.
Call the grandmothers.
They belong to a Stamford-based grassroots group, Women on Watch. The headline on their Facebook page reads: Democracy is not a spectator sport.
“We’re all senior women. We’ve been around for 13 years and we have about 300 members,” said Ann Weiss, who answered Ruijter’s call. “When we heard the town clerk needed help, we started getting people together.”
Women on Watch, called WOW, soon had more than 70 volunteers organized in two shifts, five days a week. They open envelopes, check that applications are signed and dated, timestamp them and complete other clerical tasks the town clerk needs to prepare to mail ballots once the state releases them next week.
“At this point I’m close to eight people per shift, one shift in the morning and one in the afternoon. They might need to add a third shift, and maybe one on the weekend,” Weiss said. “They have boxes and boxes of absentee ballot applications. It’s kind of overwhelming.” Ruijter agreed.
In a typical presidential election, her office processes about 5,000 absentee ballots, Ruijter has said.
But for the pivotal contest between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, voters fearful of going to the polls because of COVID-19 are opting for absentee ballots.
For that reason, the secretary of the state has
sent absentee ballot applications to all of Connecticut’s registered voters, who this year may claim COVID-19 as a reason for not voting in person.
But many Stamford residents did not wait to receive an application from the state, Ruijter said.
“We have a lot of applications that people downloaded themselves from the state’s website,” she said. “People were eager to be early with their applications.”
Election turnout is expected to break records, further increasing the number of absentee ballots. Ruijter thinks her
office will end up processing 35,000 to 50,000, or seven to 10 times more than in a typical presidential election year.
“It could be higher if there is a spike in coronavirus cases,” Ruijter said.
Stamford’s registrars are expecting such a high turnout that, for the first time, they have added a voting district. The city usually has 22 voting districts for national elections but this year a 23rd district will be added in the South End, where the population has increased because of all the apartment buildings that have gone up there, Ruijter said.
In the borrowed space on the third floor of city hall Tuesday, staffers from the town clerk’s office, temporary hires and volunteers were tapping on computer keyboards, reviewing forms, carrying stacks of paperwork, stapling envelopes to applications, stamping, filing and sorting. Tables, desks and carts holding boxes were pushed against the walls.
“We’re going to add six workstations,” Assistant Town Clerk Chanta Graham said. “We have more computers coming. Hopefully, it’s enough room.”
The work now is focused on absentee ballot applications and putting
return labels with the town clerk’s address on the envelopes that will contain the actual ballots.
The operation will change considerably after the secretary of the state sends the ballots to the town clerks, which by law can’t start until Oct. 3.
“We will get 50 to 80 boxes of ballots that will have to be kept behind locked doors. Only the staff can handle them,” Ruijter said. “We need to establish the chain of custody – ballots have to be under supervision at all times.”
The workload will be substantial, Graham said.
“I think we have the staff,” Graham said. “We just have to work longer hours and get it done.”
Citizen volunteers are ready, said Weiss, who is scheduling shifts with fellow WOW member Marlyn Agatstein to help where they will be allowed. The League of Women Voters of Stamford and other groups are providing more volunteers, Weiss said.
“Marlyn made a mailing list so we can get information to all the volunteers,” Weiss said. “Every day my inbox is flooded with people. People are sending notes saying, ‘I have to do something.’ It’s wonderful.”
Amy Ewing of the League of Women Voters said the group has a dozen volunteers working with the town clerk, some on multiple shifts, and offers to help keep coming in.
Besides helping out in the town clerk’s office, WOW members set up a table in front of downtown’s Ferguson Library to register voters and are working with other grassroots groups that use an online organization called Vote Forward to obtain lists of voters nationwide and send them postcards urging them to participate.
“A lot of people are very enthusiastic about this election,” Weiss said. “I think turnout will be very high.”
Ruijter said she can’t believe how many people volunteered.
“People seem happy to do it,” she said. “They know they are helping to keep democracy safe.”