Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas is launching a new initiative called Connect and Cuts where she visits barber shops across the state, gets a haircut, and has a conversation with the barber or stylist.
Connecticut's Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas visited JBS Barber Spa in New London Monday to launch a new public awareness initiative.
"ConneCT & Cuts" is an initiative aimed at showcasing local communities, while discussing the importance of elections and any barriers that keep people from voting.
“My goal is to get people talking about elections and how they can engage with democracy beyond Election Day," said Thomas. "I’m hoping to learn what some of the barriers are. Municipal elections, for example, have an average of 30% turn out and I’d like to know why when presidential elections have 70% turn out. What is the differentiator there? So if I can learn about these barriers, hopefully I can help starting to break them down.”
As part of the initiative, Thomas plans to get her hair cut at 10 barber shops and salons across the state over the next year. Her haircut and one-on-one conversation with the barber or stylist will be filmed and shared on social media.
Get Connecticut local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Connecticut newsletters.
Owner of JBS Barber Spa, Jeffrey Zapata, cut Thomas's hair. He applauded the effort to connect, recognizing that barber shops and salons are places of community and conversation.
“It is very important because if the barber has more information, we can provide that to our client," said Zapata. "That is going to help our community a lot.”
Thomas said the barber shops and salons were selected in various towns to reflect a broad range of demographics, town/city size, and voter turnout numbers.
