Almost 1K Latecomers Vote; 50 Don’t

After waiting for two hours in City Hall to register and vote in Tuesday’s election, Katherine Ayers made it to the front of the line at 8 p.m. — just as the operation shut down.

Ayers, whose dyslexia makes the registration forms a little more complicated, brought along her 10-year-old son, Harrison Seaberg, to help. He waited on line with her.

“We were so close,” she said, in tears.

She wasn’t the only one. With the help of a hard-working city crew, close to an estimated 1,000 people made use of a new Election Day Registration (EDR) law to sign up and vote at the last minute. But at least 50 people like Ayers had to leave when the crew had to shut down same-day registration and voting promptly at 8 p.m. to comply with state law.

(Officials didn’t expect to have exact figures on EDR voters until mid-Wednesday.)

Those who missed the 8 p.m. registration deadline vented their frustrations, refusing to leave the room. The police were even called, though it turned out they weren’t needed.

“The issue is, you come in at the last minute,” EDR moderator Jonathan Einhorn said to the crowd.

“I didn’t come in the last minute!” one woman countered. ​“I came in at 6:15.”

Long wait-times characterized the day: voters reported standing around for up to two hours.

“It’s terrible,” Einhorn said of being forced to turn people back. ​“It’s absolutely terrible.” Ideally, he said, the deadline for EDR would come earlier — like 4 p.m. — to prevent rushes like these.

Statewide, close to 30,000 people made use of the new Election Day Registration (EDR) law to sign up to vote and then cast a ballot, according to Patrick Gallahue, spokesman for the Office of the Secretary of the State. That already almost doubled the 11,000 who made use of EDR in the gubernatorial election in 2014, the first year the law went into effect.

So New Haven wasn’t alone in struggling to deal with a wave of last-minute voters.

“Almost 30,000 people have been able to cast a ballot because of this new opportunity for voters. Sadly it would appear some others missed the deadline,” Merrill said in a statement released by her office. ​“The law is clear. In order to vote you must be registered by 8 o’clock. The procedures were set by the legislature for a reason. I welcome reconsideration of this or any other law that may restrict someone’s ability to vote and invite further opportunities to expand the vote, including early voting. The time has come to take the pressure off of a single polling day by re-introducing a constitutional amendment to allow for early voting.”

The secretary of the state’s office had expressed alarm last week at what it considered inadequate planning by New Haven for the expected rush. Since then that office and the mayor’s office sent reinforcements. Click here and here to read about that.

By Tuesday, a crew of 16 people, including top mayoral aides like Chief of Staff Tomas Reyes and at least one alder (Dolores Colon), were shepherding the hundreds of people filling the second floor of City Hall through stations to sign up, verify their registration, and cast ballots. It was an impressive contrast to the slow-moving process there in 2014, the first year the EDR law took effect, when some 600 people made it through but 100 were turned away.

Those in line Tuesday gave a number of reasons for their last-minute rush. Some had originally shown up to their polling place only to realize they weren’t registered. Others were registered elsewhere in the state of Connecticut.

Others — like University of New Haven senior Jeanny Francois — admitted they were just procrastinators.

“I deserve it,” Francois said of the wait. ​“I did it to myself.”

While Einhorn characterized the previous EDR crowd as mostly students, he observed that this time around the crowd was more diverse and ​“more determined to vote.”

Still, he was perplexed by how no one in line had registered the other 365 days of the year.

As the final hour drew to a close, some of those waiting dug their heels in. Others arrived, saw the line and turned right back around.

At the tail end of the line, Dwight resident Quijaon Johnson and his mother, Quenette Johnson, kept positive. Quenette Johnson had voted earlier in the day. She also wanted her son — a 19-year-old student at the University of Connecticut — to vote in his first election.

“Because his mother dragged him here,” she clarified. ​“We’re gonna tough it out. We have no other option but to go home and sit in front of the TV.”

Valerie Fleming and her daughter Daevona Allick were among the voters who waited an average of two hours to register and then cast their votes. They got to City Hall, where Election Day registration was being conducted, at about 2:45 p.m.

Fleming used the same day registration process because like many people she had an address change and hadn’t updated her registration. Allick is a Gateway Community College student had just neglected to get it done during the initial registration period.

“I thought she had done it,” Fleming said.

“It’s my first time voting,” Allick said.

Markeshia Ricks contributed tot his story.