by Thomas Breen The New Haven independent
Flowers, greeted on Monday by polling place workers, including moderator Paul Chambers (second from right).
Perry Flowers walked from his home in Westville Manor to a basement program room at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) Monday morning to vote for himself — and to cast the first ever ballot at the city’s second early voting location.
Flowers is the Republican candidate for alder in West Rock/West Hills’ Ward 30. He’s running against three-term incumbent Democrat Honda Smith in the Nov. 4 general election.
On Monday, Flowers became the first New Havener to vote at the city’s newest polling place, which is located at SCSU’s Schwartz Hall at 320 Fitch St.
Early voting in November’s municipal elections across Connecticut began on Monday, and is scheduled to run for the next 14 consecutive days. New Haven’s two early voting sites are located at City Hall and at SCSU’s Schwartz Hall. (Connecticut’s first election with early voting was the April 2024 presidential primaries.)
As Schwartz Hall polling place moderator Paul Chambers explained Monday, a new state law requires municipalities to establish early voting sites at public colleges where at least 1,000 students live on campus or in school-run housing. SCSU meets those criteria. And so the local Registrar of Voters opened up this second early voting site at Schwartz Hall.
Early voting on Monday began at 10 a.m. and runs through 6 p.m. Those are the hours that the two early voting locations will be open through Nov. 2, with the exception of Tuesday, Oct. 28 and Thursday, Oct. 30, when early voting will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Republican Registrar of Voters Lisa Milone, who was working at the SCSU site on Monday, said that no one cast ballots at the Schwartz Hall early voting location during the Sept. 9 Democratic primaries (when there were primaries in alder races downtown, in the Hill, and in Morris Cove), therefore making Flowers the first New Havener ever to vote at the new SCSU early voting spot.
Republican Registrar of Voters Lisa Milone on Monday.
Flowers showed up to the Schwartz Hall polling place at around 10:19 a.m. He said he listened to soul singer Al Green — and in particular the song “Love and Happiness” — as he made his way on foot from Lodge Street to Fitch Street.
Why’d he decide to vote on Monday at SCSU? “They took our polling place away from us at Katherine Brennan,” he said about the former West Rock neighborhood polling place on Wilmot Road. He said he’s encouraging voters in his neighborhood — at public housing complexes like Westville Manor, Rockview, and Brookside — to get out early and vote at Southern. The ward also has an election-day polling place at The Shack community center at 333 Valley St.
Flowers said he voted early to lead by example. “I put my vote in so I already know” I voted, and don’t have to worry about scrambling on election day itself to balance work and voting.
Plus, he said, voting carries a special significance for him and his family as he’s in the “fifth generation from slavery. My people are from Georgia.” Voting is not something to be taken for granted, and so he wanted to get out early and cast his ballot Monday.
Flowers forgot to bring an ID with him, however, and so he spent a minute inside the Schwartz Hall polling place scrolling through his phone to try to find a picture of his identification. He found one, presented it to the polling place workers, signed and dated the requisite form to indicate that he’d be voting early, and then filled out his ballot and put it in the tabulator.
Who did he vote for in the Ward 30 race? “Myself,” Flowers said. And what about in the mayoral race, Democratic incumbent Justin Elicker or Republican challenger Steve Orosco? “You know who I voted for,” Flowers said with a smile.
SCSU’s Schwartz Hall at 320 Fitch St.
This reporter walked in through Schwartz Hall’s front door Monday at around 10 a.m. to try to find the early voting site. A student working behind a front desk said she didn’t know where the site was …
First voter Flowers, who listened to “Love and Happiness” on his early voting pedestrian commute.