Decision 2020

Voting Underway as People Receive Absentee Ballots

NBC Connecticut

On Sunday, voter after voter dropped off their absentee ballots at a special box outside West Hartford Town Hall.

“Just get it over with so I wouldn’t forget it. I wouldn’t forget it anyway and this was convenient,” said Eileen Russo of West Hartford.

Many have already received their ballot after 15,000 were sent out in West Hartford on Friday.

Across the state, nearly a half-million absentee ballot applications have already been processed.

“We’ve never voted this way before, absentee ballot, and this was quite easy, instructions were well outlined and very easy to do,” said Bernard Kosto of West Hartford.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, access to absentee voting was expanded.

And on Friday, Governor Ned Lamont touted a new law that will make it quicker for election workers to process returned absentee ballots.

They can now open one envelope on the Friday before Election Day and then open the inner envelope on the morning of Nov. 3.

While people can mail in their ballots, the Secretary of the State had encouraged people to use the special dropbox in their community.

“I felt I was doing a good, right thing. Happy. Hope it works,” said Gale Kosto of West Hartford.

Voters we talked with said it was a simple process and a potentially safer option than voting in-person.

“There’s been so much described about delayed counting of ballots and we wanted to get them in so they would be available to be counted,” said Bernard Kosto.

Election staff urge voters to get absentee ballots in as soon as possible. The deadline to drop them in the special box is 8 p.m. on Election Day.

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