Jabez Choi photo
EDR detritus at City Hall.
Laura Glesby photo
Luisa Miliano: Thrilled to vote, regardless of line.
(Updated) Four hours after arriving at City Hall to cast her first vote as a new U.S. citizen, Luisa Miliano found herself still waiting and waiting — along with 100 others — to make it to the end of Election Day Registration.
The last voter in New Haven cast a ballot at around 10:30 on Tuesday night, making the total number of same-day registration voters 1,130.
Miliano stood in a line of hopeful voters that encircled City Hall’s second floor at around 9:15 p.m.
Waits earlier in the day for same-day voter registration, also known as Election Day Registration, lasted two and a half hours. Later in the day, those wait times grew to four and a half hours.
According to city Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Rebecca Bombero, everyone present would be able to vote. City Hall, meanwhile, was closed, and police were stationed outside on Church Street.
Miliano, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, recently obtained her U.S. citizenship. She was thrilled to be casting her first-ever ballot, regardless of the line.
Miliano said she’s lived in New Haven for nearly 20 years. She works by day as a clerical staffer in the Board of Education’s transportation department. At night, she is pursuing a social work degree at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU).
Right after work on Tuesday, she went straight to Ross-Woodward School, the polling place where she thought she would be able to vote. There, she learned that she would need to go downtown to City Hall in order to register and then vote.
During the long wait at City Hall, Miliano logged into her SCSU English class from the City Hall hallway.
She was planning to vote for Democrat Kamala Harris. “Besides the fact that she’s a woman of color, I think she has a lot to offer,” she said.
Meanwhile, Averi Shanell was taking a pizza break off to the side, having also spent four hours waiting in line.
“I appreciate that they fed us,” she said. “I started to explore the building.”
Shanell needed to change her voter registration after recently moving. She had already filled out a voter registration form handed to her by a poll worker; she was just waiting for someone to process it.
“I’ve been here since 5:30, but Kamala for President is worth it!” she said sunnily.
A nurse practitioner named Jordan Quintin was the last person in line, as of 9:40 p.m. She said she was embarrassed to have arrived so late. She was passing the time typing up notes for work. She said she showed up to vote because she’s worried about women’s rights and about her patients who are undocumented.
Waiting, waiting, waiting to vote.
Jordan Quintin, patiently bringing up the end of the line.
Averi Shanell: “I appreciate that they fed us.”