Montville — A longtime town resident and politician who lives next door to the Montville house where he was born in 1925 found he was accidentally listed as deceased when he went to vote in the town election Tuesday.

Max Kopko, who served on the Town Council for several decades and retired from town politics 20 years ago, said he has voted at the Town Hall in every single election for seven decades.

But when he arrived to vote there Tuesday afternoon, he said, he was not listed on the voter rolls.

"I said, 'Now wait a while, I've been voting here since I was 21,'" Kopko said.

He was directed to the registrars of voters, happily just a short walk down the corridor in Town Hall, where he was told the word 'deceased' appeared next to his name in the computer system.

Reports of his death were greatly exaggerated, he said

"I says, 'I'm here, here's my I.D.,'" he said.

Kopko's brother Frederick died at 84 in August, which he said may have led to the mistake.

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Staff in the registrars' office corrected Kopko's record and gave ballots to him and his wife, Gladys.

"I did vote, they let me vote," said Kopko, who called himself a "conservative Democrat." "We haven't missed a vote for as long as we've been married."

Kopko said he voted for a mixed ticket, but wouldn't reveal any other details about his choices.

"That is only between me and me," he said.

m.shanahan@theday.com