by Paul Bass
Close to 1,000 New Haveners have already cast early ballots for next Tuesday’s municipal elections — and in the process helped Stephanie Thomas figure out how Connecticut should run future elections.
As secretary of the state (aka top official in charge of democracy), Thomas oversees state elections. She helps the legislature craft policy about how to run elections.
So she’s keeping a close eye on how early voting is working this month. Connecticut instituted early voting — opening some polling places two weeks before election day — in the presidential campaign year of 2024, when 75 percent of the state casts ballots. This is the first municipal election (i.e. sleepy) year with early voting.
Is it worth it? Should we tweak it to make it more worthwhile?
That’s what Thomas is looking to find out.
As of the end of Wednesday, 928 New Haveners had cast early ballots at one of the two locations (City Hall and Southern Connecticut State Unviersity’s Schwartz Hall at 320 Fitch St., which remain open through Sunday). Statewide around 117,000 people have voted early so far, Thomas said.
Those of us who have taken advantage of the early option have often found ourselves the only one casting a ballot with eight friendly workers guiding us through the process.
A total of 13,058 New Haveners cast ballots in the previous municipal election of 2023 (a 25 percent turnout). Is it worth paying two crews to work the polls from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for two weeks to accommodate maybe 10 percent or less of the electorate?
That’s part of what Thomas is looking to find out, she said during a conversation Thursday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program. She said she plans to touch base with local voting registrars and town clerks to get their takes based on this year’s experience including the costs and participation.
Another wrinkle she’ll look into: The state legislature will consider this year whether to establish a no-excuses mail-in absentee ballot system now that voters have approved doing so through a constitutional amendment.
That means everyone may be able to go to their municipal clerk’s office before an election to vote by absentee ballot.
Will people still need early voting stations if they can just go cast an absentee ballot?
Thomas said she hasn’t made up her mind on those questions. She’s in inquiry mode. She plans to bring her conclusions to state legislators as they debate legislation both on universal absentee balloting and on possibly tweaking how early voting works.
In considering the question, Thomas said, she is focused on her office’s mission of strengthening democracy by making it easier for people to vote.
The question isn’t about tabulating the number of people who vote under different processes. Rather it’s making sure people can vote if they want to. So someone with a medical condition with unpredictable “good days” and “bad days” for making it out of the house, or who commutes to New York with an unpredictable shcedule for making it home before 8 a.m., can make sure they make it the polls.
“A lot of seniors take medication, have ailments like rheumatoid arthritis, and they don’t always know in advance their good days from their bad days,” Thomas said. “Someone has a family member in hospice, and then it happens on Election Day that tragedy happens. Someone’s pregnant; they don’t know when the baby’s going to come. There are all these real-life things. You get a flat tire. So if you’re eligible to vote, and want to vote, and you don’t want to risk waiting until Election Day. I think those people should have other options open to them.”
Even some political science students she has made describe voting as hard, as intimidating, she said.
Thomas, who already begun the process of running for reelection in 2026, spoke of boosting democracy by also teaching people how government works. Her office has started an online course called “The Power of Civics” to that end. Click here to check it out.
“When I was a state representative, I was always surprised how few people knew what my role is, how I could help them. I was also surprised like major issues would come up that I had to take a vote on, and I would hear from two voters,” she said. She’s hoping to help change that.
Click on the video at the top of the story to watch the full conversation with Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas — including about potential federal threats to local electioins and about responses to voting fraud in Bridgeport — on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program. Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of “Dateline New Haven.”