The Connecticut chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is urging the state’s top election official to ensure all early voting ballots cast in the town of North Stonington are counted, following voters being given faulty information by poll workers there.
“We expect the state of Connecticut to count every vote,” said David McGuire, executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut. “Voting rights and the will of the people are top priorities for the ACLU of Connecticut. The state should provide workable remedies, including a robust ballot curing process.”
According to a Saturday press release from North Stonington officials, from Oct. 21 through Oct. 31 voters were improperly instructed by local election officials not to sign the back of their ballot envelopes, a signature that is required by law. The town instructed those who voted early and did not sign the envelopes to return to the town’s education center on Saturday, Sunday, or Election Day.
Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas told reporters Tuesday evening that of the 1,144 early ballots cast in North Stonington during that period, 984 of those voters “were accounted for – either they had already come back or they had scheduled that they would be back today.”
Thomas said it was possible that some of the remaining 160 voters did not return because they did, in fact, sign their ballot envelopes, in which case there would be no need for them to come back.
“It was only if the voter asked explicitly, ‘should I sign this,’ that they were given the incorrect instruction,” Thomas said.
If the voters who did not sign the envelope failed to come back to correct the mistake, Thomas said, “unfortunately, their votes will not be counted.”
McGuire said Thomas has statutory authority to correct the matter without requiring the voters to return to sign the envelopes.
“There is a general statute, Section 9-3, that empowers the Secretary of the State to issue an order to registrars to correct irregularities in the voting process,” McGuire said. “And this is exactly what this is.”
McGuire said a lawsuit on behalf of the affected voters “is always an option,” but, “Hopefully it doesn’t come to that. Hopefully there's an understanding in the next several hours that there is a way to rectify this.”
Thomas told reporters she did not, in fact, have the statutory authority to accept ballots in the unsigned envelopes.
“But I heard that there might be a lawsuit in the making, which would be great at the end of the day. I don't want voters to be disenfranchised because of a glitch at the registrar's office,” Thomas said. “I would welcome that lawsuit.”
Asked what she would say to any voters whose ballots would not be counted, Thomas said, “I share their disappointment. I think in our office and the legislature, we will definitely be looking at ways to avoid this type of situation.”
