The region is bracing for another coronavirus pandemic election. 

With municipal elections on Nov. 2, local clerks say they’re adjusting to a new normal. As was the case in the 2020 general election, and due to a provision in the state budget passed this legislative session, all voters will be able to check the COVID-19 box as a reason for voting via absentee ballot.

“We were given direction from the Secretary of the State’s Office that we’re allowed to use COVID as the reason for voting absentee. Anyone who’s afraid of contracting COVID or expects they’ll be sick, it’s the same policy that we used last year,” Groton Town Clerk Betsy Moukawsher said. “I have always had the opinion that anyone should be able to vote by absentee ballot. A lot of clerks were saying they wouldn’t have the staff to handle it, but that is our job. If it’s our job, our municipality should understand that. The moral question of, do you think people have a right to vote by absentee ballot — they should, I’ve always felt that way.”

She expects permanent changes to the election process as a result of the pandemic.

During the last session, the state House of Representatives approved a no-excuse absentee voting resolution, but could not reach the 75% threshold of votes needed to put the question on the ballot in 2022. Since both chambers passed the measure, when the question is revisited during the next session, only a simple majority vote in the House and Senate would put the idea to Connecticut voters in a 2024 referendum.

Both nationally and statewide, the issue of absentee voting has become partisan, with many Republicans claiming it creates opportunities for voter fraud and Democrats viewing it as a necessary voting right. Far more Democrats than Republicans voted by mail in the 2020 election.

Kate Wall, president of the Connecticut Town Clerks Association, confirmed that an email was sent to town clerks from the Secretary of the State’s Office in recent weeks saying clerks could send out absentee ballot applications to all voters if they’d like, but it’s not mandated. Federal COVID-19 relief money that went toward sending out absentee ballot applications to eligible voters, which the state Secretary of the State’s Office did last year, will not be available to municipalities this year.

“Most towns will not be able to mail all voters an application for this year’s municipal election. Unfortunately, the funds are not available in our budgets,” Wall said.

Other than COVID-19 continuing to be a reason to request an absentee ballot, Connecticut towns and cities also still will have voting drop boxes available for people to use.

“We’re allowed to do the drop boxes," Moukawsher said. "I opened it up on Monday, that’s when I was allowed to open it. Drop boxes must be open for use no later than 29 days before any primary or election.”

A Democratic primary for Groton Town Council will be held Sept. 14, in addition to the November municipal election.

Waterford Town Clerk David Campo said despite the coronavirus-related precautions, he expects this year’s municipal election to be typical of others.

“Maybe there will be a little more absentee ballot voting because people understand the system now,” he said. “This is a weird one for us because we don’t have a top of the ticket — there’s no first selectman, there’s no town clerk, there’s no paid position on the ballot, so there’s nobody really out there going gangbusters with the campaigning.”

Campo and Moukawsher both said the same thing — their respective budgets would not cover the expenses of sending out absentee ballot applications. Norwich Republican Registrar Dianne Slopak, who is retiring from the position this week, agreed. 

“I’ve discussed this with (City Clerk) Betsy Barrett, and it would be insanely expensive for a city of our size to send absentee ballot applications to everyone,” she said. “They’ve given them the ability to do it, it might work in a tiny town, but financially, the cost would be astronomical, so Betsy doesn’t plan to do it.”

“It costs thousands and thousands of dollars to send out all that and then you have to send it out again,” she said, explaining that registrars mail out ballot applications and, after receiving the filled-out applications, they then send out the ballots. "That’s another cost, and it’s all done first-class mail.”

Slopak said the town is anticipating strong voter turnout because it’s a mayoral election. A normal municipal election usually yields about 20% voter participation. 

“We could have as much as twice that in a mayoral, but we don’t know what it will bring since COVID is an excuse for absentee voting again,” she said. “Quite frankly, we hope there isn’t an overwhelming amount of absentee votes. It’s just so complicated to deal with.”

For the upcoming election, Slopak said, the city likely won’t need extra people at the polls but may need extra people for absentee ballot counting.

“Last year we had probably twice as many people working at the polls as we normally have,” she said. “We must have had close to 20 people counting absentee ballots and sometimes we only have six or eight.”

Registration remains the same

Citizens can register to vote at their town or city hall and online at the secretary of the state's website. To do so, people must have a valid and current driver's license, learner's permit or a DMV-issued photo ID card. People also can register by filling out the Connecticut voter registration form and mailing it to the local town or city clerk.

When voting in person, people are asked to present identification. If they have it, they can show a driver's license or a document with a name and address, such as a utility bill or a bank statement. If they don't have it, they can sign an affidavit under penalty of false statement affirming "that the elector whose name appears on the official checklist is the same person who is signing the form," according to the secretary of the state's website.

Slopak said there is no formal process in place to check the people who sign affidavits.

Before being allowed to sign the affidavit on Election Day, people have to already be on the voter registration list without a star next to their name. The presence of a star means they didn't present ID when they registered to vote, so they need to present valid ID when voting.

s.spinella@theday.com