By Sarah Opdahl

New to the Connecticut voting world, casting early votes in person at Town Hall is proving quite popular. Registrar of Voters Elisa Beckett-Flores was somewhat, but not very, surprised by the heavy influx of voters in the first week. Given the marked interest in the high sta kes federal election, she suspected that there may be a standout response…and she was right.

At the time of printing, over a quart er of all registered voters in New Fairfield have cast their ballots, including  1,775 early, in-person votes. Beckett-Flores noted, “With over 9,750 voters in New Fairfield that means we have 18.2% voter turnout just for Early Voting [so far] which is like 1 in 5 voters!” With a second week of early voting in store, that number surely climbed exponentially.

The process of early voting is simple: Identification is confirmed in the Registrar’s office, a ballot and corresponding envelope is issued to the voter, the voter is directed to voting booths down the hall, near the Town Clerk’s office, and there are ballot boxes where the ballots are stored after each vote is  cast, sealed in an envelope, signed and dated. Physically, it is a compact scenario, but early voting needs to be held in Town Hall as “the secured voter computer system is hard-wired into Town Hall,” Beckett-Flores explained.

There were a small handful of voters who were surprised by the fact that the ballots do not go directly into a machine at the Town Hall for early voting. Beckett-Flores says there is no way to keep a machine running for 1 6 days, which is why there is an alternate process in place. She detailed the process, “On the morning of the Election, November 5th, Dan McDermott [also a Registrar of Voters in New Fairfield] and I will take custody of all the Early Voting Ball ots from Holly Smith, the Town Clerk, that have been locked up in the secured/locked Ballot Bags in the Vault and then we will both take them with a police escort to the polls.” She went on to say, “The checks and balances are maintained since Dan and I are from two different parties and we are sworn Administrators of Elections as well as Registrars of Voters. The Ballots are then signed over to the sworn in Moderators at the polls.”

Once on site on Election Day, ballots are  processed by the Absentee Ballot Counters. The Counters go through specialized training by not only the Registrar’s Office but also the Town Clerk’s Office. There is always a mix of different political parties and the most experienced polling staff work as Absentee Ballot Counters.

Town Registrars feel fortunate to have fully staffed the polls for Election Day and the days of Early Voting. “Since the turnout for Early Voting has been so high, we did call in extra staff to help with the lines. We had a few staff volunteers to be on call if we needed them,” Beckett-Flores noted. Early voting is mandated at the state level and comes at a cost to the town. The largest cost for any election is staffing and ballots …. as a rough estimate New Fairfield will spend between $22-25,000 for Early Voting. “That includes all fourteen days as well as the additional ballots and supplies needed,” the registrar went on to say.

In addition to early voting, absentee ballots are in demand this year. The Town Clerk has issued approximately 800 so far and will continue issuing them through their office.

Early voting is  available to eligible voters for a couple more days—10A M to 6PM through Sunday, November 3. Polls in New Fairfield are  open on Tuesday, November 5, 6AM to 8PM.