Stonington -- Town Clerk Cynthia Ladwig announced Monday that beginning Sept. 28 and continuing through Nov. 6 her office will be closed to most in-person business so she and her two-person staff can process and issue what is expected to be a flood of absentee ballot applications for the Nov. 3 presidential election.

The town has nearly 14,000 registered voters and Ladwig said she expects many of them will be voting by absentee ballot as the state will soon be mailing absentee ballot applications to every registered voter.

“It’s going to be a little overwhelming. This will allow us to focus on the election,” said Ladwig who is in her 21st year as town clerk. 

Ladwig explained that requests from people coming in to her office to do business would make it difficult to process all the absentee ballot requests.

She said the two exceptions to the closure are those who need to obtain marriage licenses or file death certificates. All other business can be done by mail or placing it in a drop box on the front steps of Town Hall. She said the drop box worked well when Town Hall was closed this spring due to the pandemic.

The vault which contains land records will also be closed but users can access the land records through the online site RecordHub. The subscription fee for RecordHub has been waived during this time. Genealogy research request can be made by mail.

Ladwig said she expects the majority of residents here will want to vote by mail due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are in uncharted territory here,” she said.

When an absentee application comes in to her office, Ladwig has to check that the voter is registered, did not already receive a ballot and then place the ballot in an envelope, and address it. Her office also receives the ballots and can issue absentee applications.

Ladwig said she will still have to accommodate people who come to Town Hall for an absentee application, file it and then vote at the same time.

She said her office has already received 250 absentee ballot requests and will send those ballots out when they become available Oct. 2.