Early voting kicked off for the first time in Connecticut earlier this year, but Connecticut’s secretary of the state said it may be time to reconsider how long polls stay open.
“We may have too many days of early voting,” Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas said Tuesday. “I think, like most legislation, sometimes you learn some things after it passes.”
Connecticut first allowed early voting in March under a new state law in effect this year. It’s one of the last states in the U.S. to allow early, in-person voting. The law allowed for seven days of early voting before this August’s primary – it will allow for 14 days before the general election in November.
Across Connecticut, town workers have complained of limited resources and long hours to staff state-mandated early voting locations – only to see a small number of residents show up to vote.
During last week’s round of early voting, the Secretary of the State’s office says about 8,700 ballots were cast out of the state’s 1.2 million registered Democrats and Republicans. Connecticut’s summer primary is a relatively low-stakes event with GOP primary challengers for the U.S. Senate and the 4th Congressional District facing low fundraising numbers and an uphill battle against Democratic incumbents in November.
But any adjustments to the amount of early voting days would need to be decided by the legislature, Thomas said, and she encouraged “everyone to get involved in the legislative process.”
“It does less good to voice concerns outside of that process because we need those voices when the law is being made,” Thomas said.
The state legislature is set to reconvene in early January.
Her office requested $2.5 million last February from the legislature for a public education campaign for early voting, in addition to fraud prevention and general voter information. It was not funded. Thomas says when she travels around the state, many people still don’t know that early voting is an option. And those who are aware of early voting don’t know much about it, she said.
While many communities reported light turnout, others, like Hamden, saw bigger early voting numbers - over 1,300 - in part due to coordinated voter outreach efforts by mail, Thomas said.
“So towns like Hamden, I think it's no accident, they also saw the highest turnout by far in the presidential preference primary, and the same for this election," Thomas said.
Still, poll workers say the toll on resources is acute.
“The hours are long,” said Edward John Broderick, an election moderator in Hamden. “I work 10 to 12 hours a day, every day for seven days, and then in October, it'll be 14 days. And so I don't see my children all that often.”
With Connecticut less than a year into its early voting rollout, Thomas said local and statewide leaders are still learning about what’s working and what may need to be fixed.
“I think this August and in November, we'll learn some more things that we can bring into the next legislative session,” Thomas said.
