Norfolk preps for early voting for general election

By Andra Moss

Early voting will be an option for Norfolk residents for the first time in this year’s general election. Living up to its nickname as the “Land of Steady Habits,” Connecticut had been one of only four states that did not allow early voting until voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2022 that was enacted by the legislature in 2023.

For the upcoming presidential election, polls will be open from Oct. 21 to Nov. 3 as well as Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5.

As the name implies, early voting allows in-person voting before election day. The state’s new law allows for seven days of early voting before most primaries and a 14-day early voting period before a general election. The state provided $10,500 to every Connecticut town for costs associated with implementing early voting.

The additional effort to support early voting in Norfolk falls on Debra Nelson, who is filling in for Linda Perkins as the town clerk, and two part-time registrars, Dee Perron (D) and Tony Fellows (R). The registrars’ primary responsibilities include clarifying the official voting list and overseeing elections, primaries and referenda. They count the votes on election day and provide reports to the Office of the Secretary of the State.

As described by Perron, a Norfolk voter arriving for early voting at Town Hall is first checked off the voter list then sent upstairs, where their name is pulled up in the state’s Centralized Voter Registration System database and marked as having voted early. They then receive a ballot and envelope. After completing the ballot, they return with it to the registrar where they insert it into the envelope and sign the outside. The registrar notes the time it was received and the voter number before it goes into a locked ballot box. All ballots remain in a locked box, unopened, until they are counted alongside all other ballots cast on election day.

Norfolk had its first run-through with early voting before the April 2, 2024, presidential preference primary. As in many other smaller towns without full-time registrars, Norfolk had to find extra staff to make early voting possible. Ten poll workers, paid out of the state-provided funds, worked with Perron to cover various shifts over the four days of early voting.

For the August primaries, which involved only the Republican Party and two names on the ballot, 14 workers were hired to cover seven days of early voting. A minimum of three people is needed each day to ensure that two are available for curb-side voting when the Town Hall elevator is out of service, as it is now.