CT Election Voting Mostly Smooth, But Some Hiccups: Patch Survey

CONNECTICUT — Election Day in-person voting went smoothly in Connecticut for the majority of people, according to an informal Connecticut Patch reader survey.

The survey, which appeared in questionnaire form Tuesday on Patch, is meant not to be a scientific poll but only to give a broad idea of public sentiment. Nearly 1,600 readers took the survey.

Nearly nine out of 10 survey respondents who voted in person said the whole process went smoothly. Around 10 percent said some things went well and other things went poorly. Only 1 percent of people said they had an overall poor experience.

Around 58 percent of respondents said they voted at the polls on Election Day, another 33 percent voted absentee and dropped of their ballot and 8 percent mailed their ballots.

Connecticut officials encouraged absentee voters to drop their ballots in secure drop boxes instead of using the mail. More than 650,000 absentee ballots were cast in Connecticut for the election, according to Secretary of the State Denise Merrill. That’s around 35 percent of all Connecticut ballots cast in the election.

Voting by absentee

Connecticut is a bit of an odd duck and one of only a handful of states that has neither early voting, all-mail voting or no-excuse absentee voting. State legislators approved an exception this year to expand absentee voting due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Around 57 percent of respondents said that they requested their ballot online or by the mail and 43 percent said they were automatically sent an absentee ballot application.

Respondents were split on whether they trusted voting by mail with around 44 percent saying they strongly agreed it was safe and generally free of fraud and 31 percent strongly disagreeing.

Slightly more than half of the respondents said they think voting by mail should be made easier in future elections.

Most people who mailed in their ballot said their confidence level in the system was unchanged and more than a third said they were more confident voting by mail after the experience. Only 14 percent said they were less confident.

Election results

Those who took the survey overall felt more confident in the results of Connecticut’s election compared to the national election. Nearly seven out of every 10 respondents to the survey said they had confidence that Connecticut elections results are fair and accurate; Around 6 out of 10 respondents said the same for the national election.

How’d it go?

• Most readers said they had a good experience with either voting in-person or absentee voting, but there were some problems mentioned. Here’s a sampling of comments both positive and negative from readers:
• I deposited my ballot in our Towns election ballot mailbox on Oct 14th and the tracking system indicates that my ballot was never received. As a result i have no confidence in the current ballot by mail process and have approached my State Representative.
• Voting in Greenwich was great! It always is. People are friendly and kind. Everyone was respectful and patient...we felt very safe. I hope all in CT had the same experience. I wish that every town/city in the USA had as nice a voting situation as we do!
• I found voting by absentee ballot easy and would do it again in a pandemic I prefer to vote in person but felt it safer to vote absentee this year. Glad I had the option.
• I have two points. First, I do not know why CT doesn’t have early voting which would have relieved the lines on election day. Second, I never received my absentee ballot during the primaries and I had to submit my application for an absentee ballot during the general elections twice!
• I was able to track my ballot and see that it was received, but I was not able to find out whether it was counted, but I am assuming it was since it was received:-). Is there anyway that we could make the ballot tracking more detailed so that we can see whether it was counted in addition to whether it was received. My voting experience with absentee ballot was fantastic!! I am high risk for Covid 19 since I have Multiple Sclerosis & Diabetes, so it was WONDERFUL to be able to safely vote absentee
• I would have preferred to vote by mail, but i never received the application, and also never got my post card for my polling site. my polling site had extremely long lines.
• It was my first Presidential election as I only recently became a citizen, and while it was different from what I had imagined, it was still incredible to participate in this democratic process. Every vote matters, and we must never forget how many people fought for our right to vote. We should honor them by always participating.
• It may be desirable to have a two-day 'voting day' to improve overall participation opportunity. It is NOT necessary or helpful to have very extended early voting, in-person or by "mail". Voting by mail has significant opportunity for "delivery problems" to occur, both loss/misplacement and addition of 'late arriving' ballots. Information that may be useful or even vital in deciding who to vote for may become known after "early voting" has started, with no method available to change a vote already made.