An unprecedented number of absentee ballots now being sent to Connecticutvoters who’ve applied for them.
“The town of Windsor has experienced a much higher volume,” Anna Posniak, Windsor’s town clerk and president of the Connecticut Town Clerks Association said.
Posniak said she’s already inching close to 5,000 absentee ballot applications.
“In 2016 I issued 1,200 absentee ballots. Today is the first day that absentee ballots will be going out and I issued 4,877 ballots,” Posniak said.
According to the Secretary of State’s Office, at least 426,528 absentee ballot applications have been processed statewide. In 2016, there were a total of 126,948. The office has sent an application to every eligible voter in Connecticut because of COVID-19, the legwork now taken on by local election workers.
“There’s no room for anybody casting shade about the integrity of our process here in Connecticut,” Governor Ned Lamont said.
Friday Lamont signed into law a bill he said will help expedite the time it takes for local election workers to count the absentee ballots on Election Day by allowing workers to open the outer envelope of the ballot the Friday before November 3.
The inner envelope that ensures ballot privacy can be opened and absentee ballots can be counted starting at 6 a.m. on Election Day.
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“Every person who submits their absentee ballot in advance of the election will have an A next to their name preventing them from voting at the polls,” Posniak said.
Voters have up until the day before the election to apply for an absentee ballot and can drop their absentee ballot off at drop box at their town or city until 8 p.m. on Election Day.
