Markeshia Ricks Photo
Democratic Registrar of Voters Shannel Evans at a pre-election site visit to the polls at Clemente School.
Editor’s note: The Registrar of Voters Office undertook a months-long effort in advance of the Sept. 10 primary to improve its elections operation. Read about that here. On primary day, the office and Head Moderator Kevin Arnold worked closely with the Independent to work out any potential barriers to reporting election results; thanks to that cooperation, we were able to report full results to the public 25 minutes after the polls closed. Below, Democratic Registrar of Voters Shannel Evans offers a written update on how it all went.
The New Haven 2019 local Democratic Primary went well. The polls were opened on time, no long lines formed at any time during the day, and the results/ office stats were promptly made public. We have implemented a variety of registration programs. The Registrar of Voters office has hosted or attended registration events at high schools, colleges, and other community forums, where we provided the opportunity for residents to register to vote or change their address and/or party. At these events we also informed individuals about the opportunity to work at the polls during election day. This office has made unprecedented efforts to reach community members and it is our intention to continue expanding these outreach programs. Even though I am the Democratic Registrar, I acknowledge all registered voters in the City of New Haven, and I aim to facilitate participation no matter an individual’s partisan affiliation.
Our office implemented a significant number of changes for this election, which has facilitated a more responsive and efficient electoral process. We recognize change can be difficult, we worked hard to communicate the changes. Just as moving from old lever machines to tabulators has facilitated important efficiency gains, we are confident that the changes we have made will make elections work better. We will continue to evaluate the changes that we have made and welcome any feedback from voters. We will continue our communications program to help voters continue to adjust to the new changes we have made. We appreciate the help that our city’s newspapers have provided in these communication efforts and will continue to work closely with these media in future effort.
From the last election it became clear that we need more and better signage to orient voters at the polls. This year we provided more signage that was also larger to address this problem. We also trained moderators on how to appropriately place signs and created a team that would make sure the signs were placed appropriately.
Our office also changed our recruiting and training protocol to ensure that our poll workers provided a high-level of service. We increased the pay for the poll workers, which increased the interest and participation from people who wanted to work on election day. We implemented more training opportunities and made the training more rigorous. This change helped us prepare the poll workers and identify those who were capable of the work. We empowered moderators to problem-solve to prevent bottlenecks and make our operation more responsive to any election day challenges.
We made voting more efficient by reconfiguring some of our polling locations. We moved many polling places from hallways to larger facilities like the school gym or cafeteria. We also changed the layout of some polling places to create a better flow that would decrease the wait time for voters. Our office has sent letters to all electors, in a timely manner, alerting them of the changes and we will continue to communicate these changes with media outlets. Note that next year some polling locations will change since the state districts do not correspond with municipal wards. An elector can find their polling location for any election here.
Table 1 summarizes the changes that our office has made to polling locations.
As Democratic Registrar I am pleased and honored to serve New Haven as Registrar. Our office will continue to identify ways that we can facilitate voting and encourage widespread participation in our electoral process. We always welcome public feedback.
If you are not registered you can come down to Hall of Records, Registrar of Voter’s Office, 200 Orange St #201, New Haven, CT 06510 or do it online here.
If you would like to check to see if you are a registered voter, you may go here. If you do not see your name, please call our office at 203 – 946-8035.