Between the low voter turnout and the small number of ballot items — three ballot questions and four Board of Education spots to fill — one would expect that Hartford’s results would have been among the first returned to the Connecticut Secretary of the State.
Hartford 2013 Election Results (Official)
Following the election, the voting process in Hartford has received sharp criticism from the Courant on more than one occasion. Last week we reported how one resident needed to make multiple stops in different parts of town in order to vote. We continue to hear more from voters who had less than ideal experiences on Election Day.
Voters had reported that the several pages of text required to understand the ballot questions had been missing on Tuesday morning. Some places received these documents hours after the polls had been open. One resident who knew of this issue did not get to vote until early evening, around 5pm. Frank Gordón-Quiroga, whose polling place is at the Hartford Public Library, said the explanatory materials were present, but on the corner of a table.
While waiting for a poll worker to take his name and hand him a ballot, Gordón-Quiroga says he witnessed “a very confused elderly woman” leave her voting booth to ask questions. Instead of receiving answers, the Hartford resident says this woman was “berated” by the “attending registrar” and told to “‘get back in your booth.'”
According to this witness, the registrar told pollworkers in a loud whisper to not let that elderly voter ask any more questions because doing so would “spoil her.”
Gordón-Quiroga was eventually handed his ballot, but not offered questions. When he asked “Aren’t you supposed to offer me the questions?” the pollworkers sprang into action, giving him the explanatory materials.
A recent Courant editorial floated out the idea that “there’s a fine line between sabotage and the general sloppiness that’s pervaded city hall in recent years,” regarding the explanatory materials for the ballot questions. What do you think– Innocent oversight? Lack of resources? Incompetence? Sabotage? Or is there another explanation for the various Election Day snafus?
