West Hartford Gets Absentee Ballot Cash

WEST HARTFORD, CT — The last two major elections — 2020 and 2022 — no doubt saw more and more voters making their choice away from the polls.

And now, West Hartford has grant dollars to help the West Hartford Town Clerk's office make sure those ballots are processed and counted properly.

The West Hartford Town Council earlier this month voted unanimously to appropriate $28,011 in federal grand dollars to provide a fiscal boost to town efforts to handle absentee ballots.

Voting remotely has become more common in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, especially so in 2020.

And as voter integrity questions — whether legitimate or not — continue to be thrust upon vote counters nationally, handling absentee ballots has taken on increased importance.

Doled out by the federal government and administered by the state, each town received an "Absentee Ballot Support Grant."

This, according to West Hartford Town Manager Rick Ledwith, is so town clerks have the resources to process, mail and count expected high turnout for such elections.

"We did receive over 4,000 absentee ballots," Ledwith told the council Nov. 9, just after the mid-term and state elections.

In 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic was still raging and the turnout especially high due to a presidential race, Ledwith said 665,000 Connecticut residents voted via absentee ballots.

He said the grant funding is based on the average number of absentee ballots used in each town in 2018 and 2020.

According to Ledwith, the town clerk's office plans to spend the cash this way: $8,504 to assist in full-time salaries; $16,007 to assist in part-time salaries; and $3,500 in added ballot costs for 2022.

Those grant dollars must be expended by June 30, 2023.

For information about the resolution, click on this link and scroll down to Page 483.