With midterm elections coming up on Nov. 8, voter intimidation is running rampant across the country, with election workers receiving death threats in Arizona. Meanwhile, in Hamden, election workers were not overly concerned about “unruly” voters.
“Looking nationwide I have some concerns, but here we have been extremely lucky,” Mary Ann Flanagan, the deputy registrar representative, said. “We have had noisy people or complainers, but never aggressive voters.”
According to Flanagan and the second deputy registrar representative, Laura Santino, the only time they called police to a polling site was for a voter who would not wear a mask and a voter who put up “illegal signs.”
In spite of this, there will be a police presence around voter sites on Tuesday. There will be a police officer stationed at M.L.Keefe Community Center as there is every year due to the daycare there.
“Any problem, call them, they will come,” Tony Esposito, the Republican registrar, said about the police during a poll worker training session on Thursday. “We don’t anticipate there will be any problems.”
Voter intimidation did not deter pollsters from working, as Hamden’s polls are fully staffed, and there are even some pollsters on stand-by.
“I want to be involved,” Deborah Brown, who is on standby for election day, said. “I’m doing it out of civic responsibility and overall concern about what is going on across the nation. It’s happening, voter intimidation.”
While no violence has ensued at Hamden polls before, it all comes down to preparedness. During the election worker training, there was no overview of what to do about an unruly voter, but every worker should report to their moderator if a problem arises.
“When we hire new people, we try to train them the best possible,” Esposito said. He has worked for the registrar for 40 years now and has led countless training sessions. “Our job is all details, and the work is all details, we know it can be overwhelming at times.”
Because of this, the pollsters are given a comprehensive 17-page packet on what to do on election day about how to do each role at the polls. Although, it is difficult to prepare for an aggressive voter.
“In the back of the mind I think it (voter intimidation) is possible,” Brown said. “You never know where it’s going to pop up, even in Connecticut. I don’t think there is a way to prepare yourself.”
With so many unknowns, election workers can just hope everything will go fine, as it has every other year, despite what is going on nationally.
“We are concerned because it is such a volatile election,” Rose Mentone, the Democrat registrar for Hamden, said. “We don’t anticipate a problem, but we want to be prepared.”