Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill
September 8, 2020

Secretary Merrill Announces More than $2.3 Million in Election Grants to Support Local Election Officials in 2020

Absentee Ballot Support Grant to Give Town Clerks the Resources Necessary for Unprecedented Amount of Absentee Ballots - $1,446,693

Safe Polls Grant to Ensure Safe Polling Places - $865,500

Election Day Registration Access Grant to Help Registrars Handle Increased Election Day Registration Volume - $50,000

Total Aid for the 2020 Primary and General Election Totals Close to $10 Million

HARTFORD - Connecticut Secretary of the State Denise Merrill today announced more than $2,300,000 in three election grants directly to Connecticut's 169 towns for the 2020 general election, bringing total aid for the 2020 election to almost $10,000,000. This aid comes from three tranches of federal grant money, CARES Act, HAVA I, and HAVA II, that were earmarked for making polling places safe, securing election cybersecurity infrastructure, and expanding access to absentee ballots.

"The 2020 election is happening under circumstances that were unthinkable just eight months ago, and my office and registrars of voters and town clerks across the state are working hard to ensure that every Connecticut voter is able to safely cast their vote without jeopardizing their health," said Secretary Merrill. "This unprecedented effort to ensure that the 2020 election is safe, secure, and accessible to every voter has ensured that absentee ballots are available to every voter who wants one, polling places are safe for voters who choose to vote in person and for poll workers, and our elections are protected against the ongoing threat of foreign interference."

The Absentee Ballot Support Grant is given to the towns so that town clerks have the resources to process, mail out, and count a record-breaking number of absentee ballots. 2020 is the first election in Connecticut history where every voter is able to vote by absentee ballot if they choose to do so. The grant assumes that 80% of registered voters will chose to vote in 2020, and that 66% of those voters will choose to vote by absentee ballot, and grants towns $1 for each voter through the 10,000th projected voter and $2 for each additional voter more than 10,000. Should more voters cast absentee ballots than projected, towns will receive additional grant money in the same amounts. The Absentee Ballot Support Grant projects more than 1.1 million votes cast by absentee ballots, for a total grant amount of $1,446,693. This is in addition to the $2 million dollars spent on printing and postage for the absentee ballot applications and ballots in the primary, the $2.1 million on printing and postage for the absentee ballot applications for the general, the $500,000 for Secure Ballot Drop Boxes, and the $1.1 million on postage for the absentee ballot packages and completed ballots for the general.

"The nature of COVID-19 as a contagious virus that passes through direct person-to-person contact necessitated expanding access to absentee ballots so no voter had to choose between their health and their right to vote," said Secretary Merrill. "The $1.4 million Absentee Ballot Support Grant is designed to give Connecticut's 169 town clerks the resources they need to make sure every one of their constituents is able to vote by absentee ballot in November if they so choose. Although ensuring that every voter will be able to participate in our democracy in the face of a global pandemic will be incredibly difficult, my office is able to leverage federal grant money to ensure that every town is able to provide for every one of their voters."

The Safe Polls Grant is given to the towns to ensure that polling places are safe for voters and poll workers alike. Although voters can choose to vote by absentee ballot, Connecticut's polling places will be open on Tuesday November 3rd. The Safe Polls Grant gives towns $1,000 per polling place, with a minimum of $2,500 per town. The total grant amount is $865,500. This grant is in addition to the more than $500,000 expended for the Safe Polls Grant for the primary, providing PPEs to each of Connecticut's 750 polling places in the primary and the general, and deep cleaning services.

"Voters who choose to vote in person, and the poll workers who help them, also need a healthy environment in which to vote," said Secretary Merrill. "The Safe Polls Grant is critical to ensure that every polling place has the protective equipment and cleaning supplies necessary to keep voters and poll workers safe."

The Election Day Registration Access Grant is given to the top twenty towns in terms of number of Election Day registrants in order to be prepared for a potential surge in new voters registering to vote on Election Day. Most of the towns included in this grant historically have larger number of Election Day registrants, and are cities whose citizens may be more mobile, towns that host large universities, or both. Each of the twenty towns is granted $2,500 and the total grant amount is $50,000.

"Part of making sure that every voter is able to conveniently register and easily vote is making sure that every town has the resources they need to smoothly register voters on Election Day," said Secretary Merrill. "The Election Day Registration Access Grant recognizes that towns with highly mobile populations and towns that host large universities have greater need for resources devoted to registering voters on Election Day."

The Office of the Secretary of the State is also focused on protecting Connecticut's election cybersecurity infrastructure from foreign interference by helping towns to strengthen their local election infrastructure. Towns were offered $200,000 in 50/50 matching grants to replace outdated equipment, $350,000 in Cybersecurity Risk Assessments by the Connecticut National Guard, and the Secure Polls Grant of $220,000 conditioned on completing cybersecurity training and risk assessments by the Connecticut National Guard.

"Even as we are properly focused on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, threats to our election cybersecurity from Russia and other hostile foreign actors have continued," said Secretary Merrill. "From my office, to the state's Information Technology team, to the Connecticut National Guard, to local election officials in each town, Connecticut is committed to ensuring that our elections are free and fair, and that every valid vote cast is a vote counted."

All towns should receive their Safe Polls Grants for the primary election by the end of this week. The Safe Polls Grants for the general election, the Absentee Ballot Support Grants, and the Election Day Registration Access Grants will be sent to towns beginning next week.
Town Aid for 2020 General Election

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Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill
May 4, 2020

Secretary Merrill Releases Connecticut's Election Plan in the Face of COVID-19

HARTFORD – Secretary of the State Denise Merrill today released the Connecticut plan for the August 11 primary and November 3 general elections in 2020 in the face of the COVID-19 crisis. COVID-19, as a virus that passes via direct person-to-person contact, often from asymptomatic people, is a global pandemic that creates particular challenges for election administration. The plan is attached and can be found at myvote.ct.gov/2020Plan.

"No Connecticut voter should ever have to choose between their health and their right to vote," said Secretary Merrill. "This plan is designed to ensure that Connecticut's elections will be safe, secure, and accessible to every eligible voter who wants to participate. Connecticut's elections must go on, so I urge everyone who can to participate."
"As local election officials, our most important job is to make sure that every eligible Connecticut voter that wants to vote is able to cast their ballot," said Westport Registrar of Voters Marla Cowden. "Secretary Merrill's plan protects our democracy by allowing voters the opportunity to cast their ballots without the fear of putting their health at risk."

The Office of the Secretary of the State, following guidelines issued by the Center for Disease Control, will work with the municipalities to give them the resources they need to make in-person voting as safe as it can possibly be, even in the face of a pandemic. This includes approving towns' plans for polling place locations and layouts, staffing levels, emergency plans, and cleaning and safety materials needed. The Office, through the Safe Polls grant program, will be able to provide the resources necessary to secure the cleaning and safety equipment, as well as cleaning the polling places themselves and hiring additional poll workers, that will keep our voters and our poll workers safe. The Office will also be able to help the towns recruit and train poll workers for Election Day. Finally, it is important that voters know what measures their state and local election administrators have taken to protect their safety, so the Office will conduct a Safe Polls public education campaign to make sure that voters trust the safety of their polling places.

"Connecticut voters have been making their voices heard in-person, in their local polling places for more than 200 years, and for many voters that won't change in 2020," said Secretary Merrill. "That's why I am committed to working with our partners at the local level to ensure that our polling places are following the most up-to-date health guidelines, and are clean and safe for every voter and every poll worker."

The Office of the Secretary is also going to leverage cybersecurity funding to protect our elections from malicious actors at both the state and local levels. Working with the Office of the Secretary, the Connecticut National Guard will perform a high-level cybersecurity assessment of the election infrastructure of each of Connecticut's 169 towns. The Office has identified approximately 20 towns that have had chronic connectivity issues to the state's election infrastructure, and will be providing network upgrades in theses towns to prevent potential security risks. The Office is also instituting a grant program whereby the Office will pay for 50% of the upgrade when towns commit to replacing outdated hardware and software, and is supporting our towns with more online certification and security training, a dedicated trainer, and Election Support Officers to serve as field support on a regional basis. Also at the local level, the Office has successfully piloted and will be rolling out statewide a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure to increase security at the local access point to the Central Voter Registration System (CVRS), the backbone of Connecticut's election administration system.

Over the past year, the Office has significantly upgraded the security of the CVRS by instituting complex password and dual-factor authentication requirements. As one of the first centralized voter registration databases in the country, Connecticut's CVRS is nearing the end of its useful and secure life, and requires a comprehensive upgrade in the near future. The Office has begun planning for CVRS' eventual replacement and will begin implementation at the end of the 2020 cycle. In the near term, due to the complexity of the legacy code, the Office has frozen that code in place for the 2020 election cycle to prevent the creation of security risks.

"Since the Russians attempted to interfere in our election in 2016, cybersecurity has become one of our highest priorities," said Secretary Merrill. "All the information we have received from the federal intelligence community indicates that various malicious actors are still seeking to disrupt our elections, but Connecticut is partnering with federal, state, and local officials to make our cybersecurity as strong as it can be, and our elections among the most secure in the country."

The circumstances of the current pandemic make physically appearing in a polling place difficult or impossible for many voters. In an effort to ensure that every eligible voter who wants to cast a ballot is able to do so, the Office of the Secretary, contracting with a mail house, will be sending applications for absentee ballots to every registered voter in the state, and including postage paid return for those applications. After processing at the local level, those voters who request absentee ballots will be delivered ballots via the mail house, and the cost of both the mailing and return of the absentee ballot will be borne by the Office of the Secretary of the State. The Office is also providing the the towns with the resources necessary to deal with the anticipated increase in absentee ballots, including providing every town with secure dropboxes and offering a grant program that can be used to defray additional costs and personnel related to a larger number of absentee ballots. This plan will allow a larger number of voters to vote by absentee ballot than ever before, and do it at no cost to the towns or the voters.

"We are facing an illness without precedent in our lifetimes and our election system has to adapt to meet its challenge," said Secretary Merrill. "By making sure that every voter who needs an absentee ballot is able to get one without cost to the voter or to their town, we are safeguarding Connecticut voters' ability to participate in choosing their government. And make no mistake – fear of the coronavirus will guarantee that we will be seeing a higher volume of absentee ballots in 2020 whether we like it or not."

In both 2016 and 2018, the towns with highest total number of absentee ballots were Greenwich, Fairfield, Norwalk, Stamford, and West Hartford, and the towns with highest percentage of absentee ballots cast were Canaan, Roxbury, Salisbury, Sharon, Washington, Wesport, and Weston.

The plan relies on funding from the recently passed CARES Act specifically earmarked to making polling places safer and expanding accessibility to voting by mail, as well as additional appropriations made to protect the cybersecurity and integrity of elections from the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

"This plan was only possible through the hard work of our federal delegation in securing federal funding in the CARES Act and in appropriating additional funding from HAVA," said Secretary Merrill. "They recognize that our citizen's voice is their vote, and have made sure that our voters' voices will be heard."

"Access to the ballot box is a fundamental right of every American citizen," said Connecticut’s Congressional Delegation. "During this pandemic it is vital that states take steps to ensure that everyone can cast their vote in a manner consistent with health and social distancing guidelines. With the assistance of funding from the CARES Act and under Secretary Merrill’s bold leadership, Connecticut is taking the lead to ensure our state residents can safely vote in upcoming elections."

The plan is attached and can be found at myvote.ct.gov/2020Plan.

Governor Ned Lamont
May 20, 2020

Governor Lamont Signs Executive Order Allowing All Eligible Connecticut Residents to Vote Absentee in August 11 Primary Elections

(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont today announced that because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, he has signed an executive order allowing all registered voters in Connecticut to vote absentee in the August 11, 2020 primary elections.

Current state law authorizes the use of an absentee ballot for six reasons, including a voter’s active service in the Armed Forces; absence from town during all of the hours of voting; own illness; religious beliefs; duties as an election official; and physical disability. Governor Lamont said that as the highly contagious virus continues to spread and nearly 3,500 people in the state who have contracted the disease have died within the last two months, it is critical that state government make reasonable adjustments that reflect the current state of emergency while ensuring that the democratic process continues safely and securely.

“Nobody should need to make a decision between their health and their right to vote,” Governor Lamont said. “Our state has taken every responsible step to this point to ensure that our residents are safe, and the next step we must take is to mitigate the risk of the spread of COVID-19 when Connecticut residents cast their ballots. We must guarantee access to the ballot, and this is a way to do that during these extraordinary circumstances. I do not take this decision lightly, and it is with the public health and welfare of residents in mind.”

Secretary of the State Denise Merrill has announced that she intends to mail every registered voter in the state an application they will need to fill out and return in order to obtain an absentee ballot. That application, which will be sent via U.S. Postal Service, will include a postage paid return envelope. After processing the applications at the local level, all voters who requested an absentee ballot will receive the ballots in the mail, which will also include a postage paid return envelope. Each town will also have a secure dropbox in a prominent location to allow voters to deliver their absentee ballots in person without close personal contact.

Connecticut’s 2020 presidential primary was initially scheduled to be held on April 28, but to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19, Governor Lamont signed executive orders rescheduling it, first to June 2 and then to August 11, the same date that the state was already scheduled to hold primaries for other federal, state, and local offices. Moving the presidential primary to this date enables the primary for president to appear on the same ballot as those for other offices, and eliminates the need for the state to hold two separate primary elections.