NMS Hosting District 1 GOP Primary, Townwide Budget Polling

By John Voket

Newtown Middle School will be extra busy April 24 as it hosts both the first townwide budget vote and serves as one of the four local polling stations for the Republican Primary.

Having both activities on the same day also means individuals casting absentee ballots for both activities must be extra careful to ensure their ballots are not disqualified, according to Town Clerk Debbie Aurelia.

“We want people who vote absentee to be aware that their mail-in ballots for the budget come with matching coded return envelopes,” Ms Aurelia said. “So if the voter is also registered Republican, they need to be sure they are filing a separate coded absentee ballot in its corresponding envelope for the primary.”

Democratic Registrar of Voters LeReine Frampton further clarified the meticulous process absentee voters must follow if they want both a budget ballot and a GOP primary ballot to count.

“If a voter puts their primary vote in the budget envelope, or their budget ballot in the primary envelope, the ballots will not be valid,” she said. “And if a voter puts both a primary absentee ballot and a budget absentee ballot into one envelope to save a stamp, only the ballot corresponding to the envelope will be counted, so the other ballot will be disqualified.”

Both officials said they will be issuing several reminders leading up to April 24, because it is a unique circumstance that is seeing both voting activities happening on the same day.

The in-person voting experience will also be unique for District 1 GOP primary voters, Ms Frampton explained, because they technically have to exit the primary polling place before they can enter the budget polling place. The fix comes in the form of a separate voting and check-in area, as well as separate voting equipment that will be located on the left side of the middle school gym as voters enter for the GOP primary.

Instead of making those voters exit the building, just to turn around and reenter to cast a budget vote as state law requires, Ms Frampton is creating an interior foyer or common area directly inside the entrance. This will permit GOP primary voters to simply walk back into the common area, and across to the right side of the gym to check-in and cast a separate budget ballot.

All Republican primary voting for those in Newtown’s three other polling districts will proceed normally. But those voters will be required to head to the middle school to cast their budget ballot.

For absentee ballot information, contact the town clerk’s office at 203-270-4210.