Paul Bass Photo
The EDR fiasco, 2014.
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Registrar Evans: Another botched election?
The Secretary of the State’s office rushed down to New Haven to try to prevent a repeat Election Day disaster involving last-minute registration.
An election staffer from the office huddled with the city’s Democratic and Republican registrars Thursday to try to bring them up to speed on how to conduct Election Day Registration (EDR).
The secretary of the state’s office is concerned for three reasons, according to spokesman Patrick Gallahue:
• New Haven’s registrars, unlike the majority of other registrars in the state, failed to participate in three EDR training sessions.
• The office appeared not to have enough ballots in place and staffers ready to handle the expected crush of people seeking to vote.
• This is the first presidential election in which Connecticut will have EDR, and big crowds of last-mintue voters are anticipated in college communities.
Compounding fears is the fact that New Haven failed in handling EDR in 2014, the year it took effect in Connecticut. The registrars planned for around 200 people to show up to register and vote that day. More than three times that many showed up. People spent hours waiting to sign up and vote in a line that snaked out of the cramped, overwhelmed space the registrars set up on the second floor of City Hall.
And 100 people didn’t get to vote at all, because the registrars couldn’t sign them up by 8 p.m., when the polls closed. Under state law, if you’re in line to vote by 8 p.m. you can still cast a ballot after 8 p.m.— but only if you have already registered. You can’t register after 8 p.m. and still vote in that election.
Read about that 2014 mess here.
The 2014 EDR line outside the room, where people waited hours.
Despite that experience, New Haven appeared to be ill-prepared for next Tuesday’s election, in the view of the secretary of state’s office, according to Gallahue: It prepared to have too few ballots on hand. It still plans to hold EDR in the same cramped quarters on City Hall’s second floor. And the registrars told the visiting state election staffer they plan to have nine people on call to work the computers and process registrants; that number is too small, based on the formula the state uses to staff EDR, Gallahue said.
Democratic Registrar of Voters Shannel Evans, who runs the registrar office, refused to discuss the Thursday meeting with the state, when asked about it in person Friday.
“How did you hear about that?” she snapped. “We’re busy. I can’t stop and have a conversation with you all day.”
She said she would order the Republican registrar, Delores Knight, to answer any questions.
Knight did. She said she was surprised, at the end of the Thursday meeting, to have the state election official question their preparedness: “We went through everything. At the end, the woman said, ‘New Haven is not ready.’”
As for staffing levels and room size, “none of that was ever mentioned to us by the lady yesterday,” Knight said.
Knight said the registrars did not participate in the training sessions, two of which were held on conference calls, “because we’re busy. We have gone to several trainings. But conference calls we have not participated in because we were busy. We were being hit with voters. Then we had the online registration through DMV [state Department of Motor Vehicles].”
Voter Suppression?
The secretary’s office raised a separate concern with the registrar’s office this week: The registrars sent where-to-vote postcards to citizens this week reading, in part, “IDENTIFICATION IS REQUIRED.”
The state does ask people to show some form of identification at the polls. Not necessarily a photo ID. It can be a ldriver’s license, say, or a credit card or utility bill.
But if you show up with no identification, you can still vote. You sign an affidavit and then receive a ballot.
The fear is that the notation on the postcards will keep some people home who mistakenly believe they won’t be able to vote.
Paul Bass Photo
Merrill: “Suppression” feared.
“I am concerned about suppressing people’s vote, “Secretary of the State Denise Merrill told the Independent Friday. “We had a long conversation with all the attorneys yesterday [about it]. It’s just muddying the waters, and we’re not happy about it.”
Democratic Registrar Evans refused to speak about this issue, either. She referred questions to Republican Registrar Knight. Knight said New Haven has used that language in the past and never heard complaints. “That’s always been there. [Then] we got a call yesterday from Peggy Reeves that identification is not required.” At that point, she said, it was too late: The cards had been sent. Knight said the state should have spread the word sooner. “There is a lack of communication,” she said.
New Haven screwed up its where-to-vote postcards sent for this past April’s presidential primary, the first election Evans oversaw since becoming Democratic registrar. Hundreds of people received postcards from her office directing them to the wrong polling places. Click here to a read a story about that and about Merrill’s reaction.