Town clerks in the region are challenged by the number of absentee ballots coming in, but are confident they’ll be able to manage the influx after a trial by fire in 2020.

“It’s overwhelming, but we can handle it,” Stonington Town Clerk Sally Duplice said.

As a stopgap measure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the state legislature instituted what was essentially no-excuse absentee voting in the 2020 election. The move wound up creating record voter turnout and more than 650,000 absentee votes. It also caused people, such as legislators, activists and election workers, to question not only the future of absentee voting rights in Connecticut, but expanding voting rights in general. Now, early voting is on the ballot this year, and no-excuse absentee voting will be on the ballot in 2024.

Waterford Town Clerk David Campo made a comparison that other clerks agreed with: “In the end, I’m going to do what I used to do for a presidential election for a governor’s,” Campo said.

Campo said he warned staff leading up to election season about an overwhelming number of absentee ballots. While it’s more absentee votes than usual for a non-presidential election, Campo said the fear of being overwhelmed appears to be unfounded.

“This is coming in right around those numbers that I used to do for a presidential election before 2020,” he said. “I thought the numbers were going to go way up because of 2020. But let’s remember people were legitimately scared to go to the polls in 2020, and they should’ve been. It was six months after the whole thing started.”

As of Monday, Waterford had issued almost 1,100 ballots and had almost 750 returned. By Thursday, the town had more than 950 ballots returned. In 2016, Waterford received 861 absentee ballots; 638 in 2018; and 4,720 in 2020.

Duplice said she and Deputy Clerk Stacy Gravino are short-staffed by one person, and sometimes have to work after hours and on weekends, “but we are keeping up with it.”

An announcement from the Secretary of the State’s office in August said the state received a $1 million federal grant, which was then sent to Connecticut’s 169 towns to help assist with absentee ballots in the November election.

“The federally funded Absentee Ballot Support Grant will be given to towns so town clerks will have the resources needed to process, mail, and count what is expected to be a high number of absentee ballots returned in 2022,” according to the Secretary of the State’s office.

Duplice said the extra funding has helped, “especially with mailing absentee ballots.”

In 2016, Stonington received 1,077 absentee ballots; 871 in 2018, 5,024 in 2020, and, as of Friday, had received 1,142.

Montville Town Clerk Katie Haring said the increased number of absentee votes could be the new normal. She said Montville typically has 80% turnout in presidential elections versus about 60% in a year where the governor’s race is the highest office on the ballot.

Haring said her office has been handling the amount of absentee voting “fine,” but, “If the numbers steadily increase over the years, it could become an issue.” She said the grant money offices like hers received this year may need to become an annual installment.

“It does take a while to get just one ballot set, made and out to a voter, so having a two-person office, and on top of all that doing the daily stuff like land records, births and everything, it can get a little tricky,” Haring said.

In October, the Secretary of the State’s office put out a new system for people to apply for absentee ballot applications online.

“It’s good for the voter, it’s not as much as a waiting period to get me that application and to be able to issue that ballot, but it doesn’t cut down on our time,” Haring said.

As of Nov. 1, Montville had issued more than 600 ballots and received about 400, in comparison to the last gubernatorial election, which only had about 150 absentee votes.

Montville received more than 3,100 absentee ballots in 2020, 367 in 2018 and 656 in 2016.

Norwich Assistant City Clerk Roseanne Muscarella said that in 2018, Norwich processed approximately 500 absentee ballot applications. They’ve received more than 1,200 this year and gotten back more than 700 ballots.

“This is about a quarter of what we did for the presidential election, which was horrendous during COVID, so we’re holding our own,” Muscarella said. She added that the grant money has been “a tremendous help.”

Norwich had 840 people vote absentee in 2016, 477 in 2018 and 5,225 in 2020.

East Lyme Town Clerk Karen Galbo said that the town has seen an increased number of absentee votes.

In the last gubernatorial election, 2018, East Lyme issued about 700 absentee ballots. As of Nov. 1 they had sent out more than 1,300. Still, the level of absentee voting hasn’t been overwhelming, Galbo said. In 2020, East Lyme sent out almost 5,700 ballots. And in 2016, the most recent presidential election before COVID, it sent out 957.

According to statistics issued by the SOTS office on Wednesday, in the second Congressional District, 15,493 absentee ballots have been sent out to Democrats, 5,484 to Republicans, 7,705 to unaffiliated voters and 383 to voters registered to other parties, making for a total of 29,065. Of that, Democrats have returned 9,051 ballots, Republicans 3,086, unaffiliated voters 4,064 and voters registered to other parties 203, for a total of 16,404 ballots returned. That’s a 56% return rate compared to 55% statewide.

Overall, throughout the state, Democrats have returned 42,510 absentee ballots, compared to 14,015 for Republicans,18,156 for unaffiliated voters and 798 for voters registered to other parties.

According to the Secretary of the State 2021 statistics, there are 2,257,538 active, registered voters in the state, with 14,650 active and registered voters in Stonington, 14,254 in Waterford, 19,769 in Norwich, 13,461 in East Lyme and 11,296 in Montville.

The SOTS will release updated voter registration numbers on Monday.

To receive an absentee ballot, people must complete an application and return it to their town clerk by mail or in person. Ballots received before polls close on Election Day are counted.

Local town clerks have said this close to the election, it’s best to drop off ballots at the town or city hall if someone is registered to vote but can’t be there on Election Day.

Registrars can start counting absentee ballots anytime after 10 a.m. on Election Day, according to the Secretary of the State’s Office. Most wait until after polls close.

s.spinella@theday.com