Secretary of State Merrill voices call for new tech, laws to get people voting

Written by Ken Borsuk, Staff Reporter
Thursday, 09 February 2012 15:00

The ability to use more technology, Election Day registration and increased outreach are what Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill called “modest first steps” to addressing the crisis of poor voter turnout numbers.

In an appearance at Town Hall last Thursday, Feb. 2, Ms. Merrill discussed election issues and looked ahead to what can be done to get more people educated and motivated to vote.

The Greenwich League of Women Voters invited Ms. Merrill to speak so residents could hear about the latest initiatives coming out of her office. She discussed the impacts of technology and where she sees voting trends going in years to come.

“This has emerged, for me, as the biggest concern,” Ms. Merrill said. “We have really a 20th century or maybe a 19th century election system. Everything is still paper. We don’t spend much money on it. We hire poll workers in hundreds and hundreds of precincts, which in my opinion is far too many, to do work on Election Day, many of whom are very elderly because, basically, who you can get to work all day that doesn’t have something else to do on a Tuesday for very, very little money. Many of the poll workers do it for love of the system. They do it because they want to help. It’s a very creaky system frankly and there are lots of questions about if standards are uniformly enforced across all precincts. It’s a concern we all share.”

Ms. Merrill said new technology can not only make voter counts more accurate, but less expensive as well. That will require an investment in election infrastructure and Ms. Merrill said that hasn’t happened in more than a decade on the federal level.

With things changing so much across the country, Ms. Merrill predicted that the state’s voting system will not look the same in five years. A report is expected out in the coming weeks on the future of elections and it will include proposals for legislation like flexible voting laws with possible suggestions like Saturday voting and voting by mail. All of these are being tried in other states and Ms. Merrill pointed to Oregon’s vote by mail system which reports high turnout, close to 80%.

Ms. Merrill didn’t endorse any of these suggestions, but she did say it was important to have a discussion about them and they can’t have any of these reforms under current state law where, except for very specific exceptions, you have to appear in person to vote. She said it was “very unusual” to have that much specificity in the constitution and would propose to have it changed so reforms could at least be feasible.

Ms. Merrill said there are also programs underway to boost voter turnout in the state, particularly amongst minority groups and young people. She said everyone needs to be “deeply concerned” that the next generation of voters is not participating. Every year the number of young people turning out drops, she said, especially in local elections. Ms. Merrill estimated that a third of eligible voters in Connecticut weren’t even registered and said she would be calling for online voter registration. However she said online voting itself was not feasible yet because of security concerns.

“I believe we need more flexible laws for voting, especially if we’re going to address the issue of voter participation,” Ms. Merrill said. “We’ve got a new group of people who do everything on their iPhone. They’re not even using their computers anymore. I’m told by my kids that e-mail is an antique. They text now. They use Twitter. It’s instantaneous. So imagine their reaction to a system that says not only do you have to register in person, you have to vote in person and you have to do it on a weekday when you might be working somewhere else. This is foreign to them and they’re just not registering.”

Ms. Merrill said it was critical for today’s youth to be included and not feel the voting system “isn’t for them.” She said it should be “everyone’s mission” to increase voter participation and that it has to be a grass roots effort that involves everything from incorporating technology to teaching civics in schools again.

Ms. Merrill said she would also call for Election Day registration, which would allow someone to register and then vote on an Election Day. This has been a controversy in the country with some Republicans trying to eliminate it because they claim it leads to voter fraud and Democrats defending it saying these efforts are attempts at voter suppression because Election Day registration has led to increased minority and youth turnout.

“This is something whose time has come,” Ms. Merrill said.

The Bridgeport debacle

It wasn’t an issue from within Greenwich’s borders that took up a chunk of the discussion, it was 2010’s infamous Election Day in Bridgeport. In an incident that garnered Connecticut some unfortunate national attention, the city ran out of ballots and had to scramble around trying to find new ones and accommodate the turnout. This led to cries of both voter disenfranchisement and voter fraud and with an ultra-tight governor’s race that year, left all calling for reform.

Ms. Merrill recalled taking office last year thinking she was going to be working on civic education and voter participation only to find herself thrust into the Bridgeport controversy, which had been handled by her predecessor Susan Bysiewicz.

“The course of what I planned to do took a bit of a different direction because I had to address what happened,” Ms. Merrill said. “Two days after I was elected, I was convening a working group to figure out what we were going to do. Is this a one time occurrence we shouldn’t be worried about or are there deeper structural issues? As a result we passed legislation to address the immediate concerns about running out of ballots. It was a shocking thing that happened. I think the most shocking thing wasn’t that they ran out of ballots, which believe it or not happens in a lot of towns every year. It’s just that they usually know what to do about it.”

Ms. Merrill said a plan is now in place to make sure people are able to respond quickly and effectively if a situation like that ever happens again, especially with a presidential race looming this November on a state ballot that also includes a senate race, U.S. House races and state legislature. Every town is now required to have an emergency plan for elections, which Ms. Merrill had to be used in some places this past Election Day when inclement weather hit the state and knocked power out in certain areas.

Towns are also now required to let Ms. Merrill’s office know how many ballots have been ordered but she told everyone at the event she was “shocked” to find out how little authority the secretary of the state’s office has in cases like this.

“The truth is it’s a very local system and that’s both a blessing and a curse,” Ms. Merrill said. “Elections are run by local officials. We have 169 towns and each town has two registrars, one from each of the major parties. That’s something I think we need to look at now that there are more unaffiliated voters than those that join parties.”

Ms. Merrill said it was a series of mistakes that hit Bridgeport in 2010 that escalated and things just “melted down.” She said the plans should keep that from happening again, but she granted, under questioning by audience members, that it was impossible to guarantee issue-free elections.

“There’s no insurance that there will ever be no errors,” Ms. Merrill said. “I have to tell you there’s never been anything like an error free election but we did pass new legislation to give my office extra authority to step in if there are problems that are flagged.”

The audience for the appearance included State Rep. Livvy Floren (R-149) a member of the legislature’s Government Administration and Oversight Committee, Selectman Drew Marzullo, Town Clerk Carmella Budkins and members of her staff as well as Greenwich’s Democratic Registrar of Voters Sharon Vecchiolla.

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