Election Information

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Election Overview

Under Connecticut law, in order to vote by absentee ballot, a voter must be an active, registered and have filled out an absentee ballot application. Absentee ballot applications are available for download online and at the office of the Town Clerk in each town.

Connecticut law allows you to receive an absentee ballot if you cannot appear at your assigned polling place on election day because of active service in the Military, absence from the town, illness, religious tenets forbid secular activity on the day of the election, duties as an election official at a polling place other than your own during all of the hours of voting, or physical disability. To receive your absentee ballot please complete and sign an application and return it to your Town Clerk.

Absentee ballot applications are returned to the office of the Town Clerk in the voter’s town. The Town Clerk processes the returned application, ensures that the voter is eligible to receive an absentee ballot, and enters the voter’s information into the Central Voter Registration System. At that point, a unique serial number is created for each ballot to ensure only the voter who requested it can vote with that ballot.

Questions that are not related to Absentee Ballot voting, contact the Registrars of Voters office at 860-647-3025 or visit their webpage.

Election Dates 

Early Voting for the Presidential Election will be held at Mahoney Recreation Center, located at 110 Cedar Street (rear entrance):

  • Monday - October 21, 2024 (10am-6pm)
  • Tuesday - October 22, 2024 (10am-6pm)
  • Wednesday - October 23, 2024 (10am-6pm)
  • Thursday - October 24, 2024 (10am-6pm)
  • Friday - October 25, 2024 (10am-6pm)
  • Saturday - October 26, 2024 (10am-6pm)
  • Sunday - October 27, 2024 (10am-6pm)
  • Monday - October 28, 2024 (10am-6pm)
  • Tuesday - October 29, 2024 (10am-6pm)
  • Wednesday - October 30, 2024 (10am-6pm)
  • Thursday - October 31, 2024 (10am-6pm)
  • Friday - November 1, 2024 (10am-6pm)
  • Saturday - November 2, 2024 (10am-6pm)
  • Sunday - November 3, 2024 (10am-6pm)

The Presidential Election will take place on Tuesday, November 5, 2024 (6am-8pm)

Absentee Ballots

  • Absentee Ballots for all elections will be made available by the Town Clerk's Office.
  • Voters who need to vote by absentee must submit their own application. See Absentee Ballot section for further information.

 

Absentee Ballots

Can I vote absentee?

Connecticut has strict laws regarding who can vote absentee. If you answer yes to any of the following questions, you are eligible to vote by absentee ballot.

  • Are you an active member of the armed forces of the United States?
  • Will you be out of town on Election Day?
  • Does illness prevent you from voting in person on Election Day?
  • Do your religious beliefs prevent you from performing secular activities like voting on Election Day?
  • Will you be performing duties as an election official at a polling place other than your own on Election Day?
  • Do you have a physical disability that prevents you from voting in person on Election Day?

Electors with permanent disabilities eligible for permanent AB status MUST submit with their application a doctor's certificate (on their letterhead) stating they have a permanent disability and are unable to appear in person at their polling place. Per State regulation, this must be submitted annually.

How do I apply for an Absentee Ballot?

1. Register to Vote 

You must be registered to vote for your absentee ballot application to be honored. You can obtain Voter Registration Applications by contacting the Registrars of Voters Office at (860) 647-3025, or via the Secretary of the States website:

All completed forms should be mailed to:
Registrars of Voters, Ab
479 Main Street, PO Box 191, 
Manchester, CT  06045-0191

You may confirm your voter registration status online or by contacting the Registrar’s Office. 

2. Obtain an Application to vote by Absentee Ballot

Absentee Ballot applications are available to print and fill out below. It is also available in Spanish.

Absentee Ballot Applications:

 

3. Fill Out & Submit Your Application 

If a voter would like to vote by absentee ballot instead of voting at the polls:

  • Submit application to Town Clerk's Office ASAP by official election drop box, mail or in person. (submit completed signed application)
  • If you choose to mail-in your application, please allow adequate time for two-way mail service. If you’re unable to allow for adequate mail time, we encourage you to leave your application in the secure drop box.
  • Submit application using the Secretary of State's online submission.
  • E-mail completed application to start process. (original app must still be received by the office before Election Day for the vote to count.)
  • Once the application is received, Town Clerk staff will proceed to process and return the final packet by mail beginning July 19th & Oct. 7th if all requirements are met.  

 

Any absentee ballot applications received for a previous election cannot be used again for the November election. A new application must be completed and submitted to the Town Clerk's Office. 

What do I do when my Absentee ballot arrives?

On July 19th for the Primary and October 7th for the election, the ballots become available to be issued. The Town Clerk’s office will begin mailing out the actual ballots beginning July 19th and October 7th to voters who requested an absentee ballot by application. 

Once the ballot is received by the voter, we ask that voters carefully read and follow the instructions including: 

  • Filling in your choice on the ballot
  • Inserting the voted ballot into, signing and sealing the inner B envelope 
  • Inserting the inner B envelope into the return C envelope

The voter must return the voted ballot package to the Town Clerk’s office ASAP. Mail to the office or place in the white official ballot drop box. Voted ballots received after Election Day will not be counted. If you choose to mail-in your ballot, please allow adequate time for two-way mail service. If you’re unable to allow for adequate mail time, we encourage you to leave your ballot in the secure drop box.

Returning the Absentee Ballot

Returning the Absentee Ballot

Once the voter fills out their ballot, carefully following all of the included directions, they can return the ballot by mail, drop box or in person to the Town Clerk’s office. The secure drop boxes will be located outside of the Town Hall and the Police Station.

All ballots must be received by the close of polls, 8:00 p.m. on Election Day

When the Town Clerk receives the ballot, they check that the serial number and barcode match the voter who returned the ballot, and then they secure the absentee ballot, still sealed in its envelope, until Election Day.

For absentee ballots that are received prior to Election Day, the Town Clerks pre-mark the Election Day checklist to indicate that the voter returned an absentee ballot. Voters who return their absentee ballot prior to Election Day will not be allowed to vote in a polling place on Election Day.

If an absentee ballot arrives on Election Day, it is held until after 8:00pm when the absentee ballot is compared to the official Election Day checklist. If the voter who returned the absentee ballot on Election Day has voted in person in a polling place, the absentee ballot is not opened and is rejected. This procedure ensures that no voter can vote twice, even by mistake.

When the polls close on Election Day, the Town Clerks feed the ballots into the tabulators to be counted. Each town is able to report their results in separate totals for absentee ballots and for polling places.

If I return an Absentee ballot, can I still go to the polls?

If you are returning an un-voted ballot: Any elector who has returned an absentee ballot to the Town Clerk and who finds such elector is able to vote in-person shall proceed before five o'clock PM on the last day before the election to the Town Clerk Office and request the ballot to be withdrawn. (See Connecticut General Statue "Sec. 9-159o. attached for the remainder of this process). 

How are Absentee Ballots Processed and Secured?

As soon as we receive a ballot, the name of the voter on the outer envelope is entered into the "Connecticut Voter Registration System." When done, the unopened ballot envelope is secured in the Town Clerk Vault. It stays secured until Election Day. All the ballots are sorted by voting district and turned over to the Registrars of Voters. It is their responsibility to oversee the counting of the ballots by appointed ballot counters. The ballot envelope consists of:

  1. An outer envelope that has a serial number or bar code and the name and address of the voter. Once opened the "Outer Envelopes" are placed in a large envelope that when filled is secured and closed with non-removable tape.
  2. When that is done, the "Inner Envelope" that the voter has signed goes through the same process.
  3. When that is done, the Vote Counters now have a ballot only with no name of the voter and begin counting the ballot. The ballots then pass through the voting machine like the one at the polling place. 
  4. After the ballots have been counted, they then are secured in a lockable bag which is then returned to the Town Clerk Vault.

VOTING BY ABSENTEE BALLOT HAS PRIVACY PROTECTIONS SIMILAR TO VOTING BY MACHINE.

YOUR NAME WILL NOT BE CONNECTED TO YOUR VOTE WHEN IT IS TALLIED!

In order to be counted, ballots must be received by the close of the polls on Election Day.

Pending a recount, these ballots are kept secured in the vault for twenty-two months or six months for a "Town Election." In the event of a recount or contested election, all ballots received by the close of the polls on Election Day are counted. 

Permanent Absentee Ballot for Disabled

Public Act No. 11-173

To obtain Permanent Absentee Ballot status, a disabled elector can file an Absentee Ballot Application(PDF, 746KB) together with a doctor's certificate stating that they have a permanent disability and are unable to appear in person at their polling place. The doctor's certificate must be on the doctor's official letterhead with the doctor's original signature and must indicate the elector's disability.

Once the Absentee Ballot application and the doctor's certificate are received by the Town Clerk's Office, a copy will be provided to the Registrars of Voters to record on the Voter Registration System.

Absentee ballots will then be automatically mailed to the elector from the Town Clerk's office for each eligible election that allow for an Absentee Ballot to be mailed.

In January of each year the Registrars of Voters will send written notice to each elector with permanent absentee ballot status to determine if the elector continues to reside at the address on the permanent absentee ballot application. If the elector fails to respond to the notice, the permanent absentee ballot status will be removed, but the elector will remain on the voter registration list. 

 

Registering To Vote

See Registrar of Voters

In-Person Polling Places

See Registrar of Voters

casting paper vote into secure box

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