‘Non-Registered’ Voters Catch Clerks By Surprise

By Steve Bigham

One of the busiest voting places in town Tuesday did not have a single voting machine on the premises. It was the town clerk’s office where the line of voters flowed out into the hallway.

When it was over, 417 Newtown residents had cast their votes there – a relatively large percentage of the town’s overall vote.

Under a new state law, all citizens over 18 are now eligible to vote for President – even those citizens who are not registered. Just after the last presidential election, the General Assembly passed a law that gave non-registered voters this right. The idea behind the move was to boost voter turnout.

In order to take advantage of this new law, these non-registered voters had to fill out a form in the town clerk’s office. And the non-registered voters came in by the hundreds.

“We’re underwater here,” noted assistant clerk Sue Shpunt, as the non-registered voters crammed inside the office.

“This is way beyond my wildest imagination,” exclaimed Town Clerk Cindy Simon.

According to town officials, non-registered voters have had the right to vote for President in the past. However, they were always excluded from voting in the final days leading up to the election. And never have they been able to vote on Election Day. And that made all the difference.

At one point, the line of “non-registered” voters stretched all the way across the Edmond Town Hall foyer to the Mary Hawley Room. The office also ran out of presidential ballots and had to make more copies.

“I couldn’t make them as fast as they were issuing them,” said Mrs Simon, who bought her staff flowers as a show of thanks Wednesday morning. “The ladies from the registrars office had to come up and help.”

Many of these “non-registered” people were voting for the first time. They converged on the town clerk’s office after learning that they could indeed cast their vote. The fact that the presidential election was so close may have also played a factor in the large turnout.

One lady said she never registered to vote because she had heard that those registered voters who did not vote were subject to arrest.

Another woman came in to ask if her husband could phone in his vote. The answer was “no.”

Mrs Simon says she disagrees with the state’s new policy for presidential elections, although her comments were based on her views as a citizen, not as town clerk.

“Personally, I don’t like it. To me the vote should be more important than that. I also disagree with voter mail-in registration. There are plenty of opportunities for people to come in and register,” she said. “Where are these people when it comes to the local election – first selectman, Legislative Council, even the governor.”

Presidential ballots weren’t the only things keeping the town clerk’s office busy. According to Mrs Simon, her office collected a total of 929 absentee ballots this year. It seems people were out-of-town all across the country this week as more than 3 million absentee ballots were collected in California and another 950,000 in Florida.