League of Women Voters Host Denise Merrill At Library

Do you remember the biggest controversy that occurred when was elected Secretary of the State? She does, and it had nothing to do with her.

The City of Bridgeport (and about 10 other towns) ran out of ballots; and for the first time in her recollection, voters were turned away from polling places.

Will this ever happen again? Well, not on her watch. Merrill was in Thursday night as a guest of the chapters from  Cheshire-Wallingford, East Shore, Hamden-North Haven, and New Haven/West Haven to share her ideas.

Dozens of Town Clerks, Registrars of Voters and league members from these towns including Bethany, Orange and Woodbridge, were in attendance.

Pua Ford of Bethany/Woodbridge introduced Merrill, who spoke about the Constitution of the state of Connecticut and how it prevents certain changes that would make life easier for Nutmeggers, such as, allowing residents who were staying in emergency shelters during the last election (due to a storm) to have absentee ballots.

In Connecticut, if you are in town on Election Day, even if you can't get to the polls, you are not eligible to use an absentee ballot. She said that is one of the things she would like to change.

Merrill also spoke to the idea of online voter registration. She's all for it. It's done in many states; it costs about 3 cents per voter compared to the current system that costs towns $2 to process each new voter.

She said the percentage of registered CT voters who actually vote is in line with the rest of the country at about 33%.

She questioned why only a small percentage of registered Puerto Rican voters actually come to the polls in CT, when in their native country the percentage rate is 90%. The answer is that in Puerto Rico, Election Day is a holiday, with parties, parades, dancing in the streets and cake. It is a big celebration.

Merrill said technology is everywhere with smart phones and computers and wifi now and the state is working on getting an Election Day App that voters can check to see if, and where they are registered to vote and the location of their polling place, that would compliment an online voter registration.

Among the more expensive, time consuming requirements associated with Election Day that she is looking to remedy is the mandatory ballot audits. After Election Day, some towns are chosen at random to be audited, which involves many people who are mandated by state law to be paid.

Depending on the type and size of an election the total cost across the state for an audit is in the range of $50,000 to $100,000. Statewide elections cost several million to hold, just printing ballots costs much closer to $1,000,000 than $100,000.

Merrill says there is a machine that can read 10,000 ballots in 10 minutes with extreme accuracy. She intends to purchase two of them with some leftover money that she has in a fund, which will help these randomly chosen cities and towns complete the process much more quickly without as much manpower.

Q & A

• Can we get machines to make voting easier for visually impaired residents? Merrill said that the state is currently being very tight with its money, so it is highly unlikely at this time.

• Should registrars be appointed instead of elected? People seem to prefer electing their registrars, and having a choice, much as they do with their town clerks.