Absentee Ballot Flood Continues, Supervised Balloting Ordered For East Side Highrise

More than 1300 absentee ballots (and counting) have been mailed by the Town Clerk’s Office for the August 12 Democratic primary featuring two races for State Senate and two for State House. Ironically, the State House district receiving the most absentee ballot action doesn’t have a primary. The absentee ballot traffic there is driven by the campaign of freshman State Senator Andres Ayala who is being challenged by City Librarian Scott Hughes. The district is included in the 23rd State Senatorial.

More than 400 absentee ballots have already been mailed to voters in the 130th State House District that covers the South End, Downtown, West End and a small portion of the East Side including  the highrise Harborview Towers with more than 200 units. State Rep. Ezequiel Santiago represents the district but he doesn’t have a primary. That means just about all the absentee ballot action is coming from the Ayala camp where campaign canvassers systematically ask all voters if they want to vote by absentee ballot. Canvassers then present an absentee ballot application to the voter to be filled out. The application is then dropped off at the Town Clerk’s office.

Absentee ballot requests from Harborview Towers, managed by the Bridgeport Housing Authority, have been so high the registrar’s office has decided to conduct supervised balloting there next Monday. Election officials have received phone calls from elderly voters wondering why they have received absentee ballots. Any voter in the building that signed an absentee application and wants to vote by absentee ballot can do so that day under the supervision of elections officials. State law provides local registrars with the authority to conduct supervised balloting if a high proportion of absentee ballot applications comes from a particular address. It helps to provide a check against campaign operatives trying to manipulate votes by absentee. It also provides an option for electors that filled out an absentee ballot application to vote at their desired designated precinct.

Other areas of the city such as two separate high rises on Palisade Avenue also have a high number of absentee ballot requests. That area, however, features a hotly contested Democratic primary in the 124th State House District between party-endorsed Ernie Newton and school board member Andre Baker. More than 300 absentee ballots have been mailed to voters in the district.

The 128th State House District has a four-way primary between freshman incumbent Christina Ayala, party-endorsed Chris Rosario, Dennis Bradley and Teresa Davidson. More than 250 absentee ballots have have been mailed to voters in the district that covers the East Side and Hollow.

More than 200 absentee ballots have been mailed to voters in the 22nd State Senate District in the Democratic  primary between incumbent Anthony Musto and Marilyn Moore. The district covers about one-third of the city, including the higher turnout North End, Brooklawn and Black Rock neighborhoods. By comparison, the absentee ballot action there, so far, represents a fraction of what’s going in the Ayala-Hughes State Senate battle. The senate district also includes all of Trumbull and a portion of Monroe. Suburban absentee voting is always dwarfed by the city.

Connecticut is one of a handful of states with excuse-only absentee ballot voting. Away for work? You vote by absentee ballot. Health issues? You vote by absentee ballot. There’s no early voting in Connecticut. That may change. A question on the November ballot will ask state voters to approve early voting.

In a city like Bridgeport, there’s two schools of thought about early voting: one says it will help absentee ballot pros manipulate early voters. The other argument says it levels the playing field for operatives who won’t cheat under the current system.

Either way, with 12 days to go until primary Tuesday, plenty more absentee voting will influence the respective races.