{"id":566,"date":"2018-12-17T04:51:03","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T04:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2018\/12\/17\/20181216midterm-election-voting-issues-will-they-continue-in-2020\/"},"modified":"2020-09-05T19:36:58","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T19:36:58","slug":"20181216midterm-election-voting-issues-will-they-continue-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2018\/12\/17\/20181216midterm-election-voting-issues-will-they-continue-in-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Midterm election voting issues: will they continue in 2020?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">By Cali Kees<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Across the United States, many experienced issues while waiting to cast their ballot this past Nov. 6 and in the days following many states experienced recounts. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">In the state of Connecticut citizens experienced long lines at polls, students had issues during their registration processes and election officials held recounts for several races in the days following the election.<\/p>\n<div\n        class=\"\n          image-block-outer-wrapper\n          layout-caption-below\n          design-layout-inline\n          combination-animation-none\n          individual-animation-none\n          individual-text-animation-none\n        \"\n        data-test=\"image-block-inline-outer-wrapper\"\n    ><\/p>\n<figure\n            class=\"\n              sqs-block-image-figure\n              intrinsic\n            \"\n            style=\"max-width:100%;\"\n        ><\/p>\n<div\n              \n                style=\"padding-bottom:56.25%;\"\n              \n              class=\"\n                image-block-wrapper\n                \n          \n        \n                has-aspect-ratio\n              \"\n              data-animation-role=\"image\"\n              \n  \n\n          ><br \/>\n            <noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Art-Exhibit-Blog-Banner.jpg\" alt=\"Art Exhibit Blog Banner.jpg\" \/><\/noscript><img class=\"thumb-image\" data-src=\"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Art-Exhibit-Blog-Banner.jpg\" data-image=\"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Art-Exhibit-Blog-Banner.jpg\" data-image-dimensions=\"560x315\" data-image-focal-point=\"0.5,0.5\" alt=\"Art Exhibit Blog Banner.jpg\" data-load=\"false\" data-image-id=\"5c17108240ec9a9be8cf5011\" data-type=\"image\" \/>\n          <\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Quinnipiac senior, Joe Iasso, has been following the news of the many issues that made headlines after this midterm election. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"> \u201cIt made me upset to look nationwide to see the amount of voter suppression that was going on and kind of look at our own town and say, \u201c\u2018oh my God, it\u2019s happening everywhere, this is a huge problem,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>   <iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mJcCEH1Id0E?start=8&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;enablejsapi=1\" height=\"480\" width=\"854\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">This year, Quinnipiac University had an Election Engagement Committee, their goal was to get 200 students to register to vote prior to the midterm election. This committee was spearheaded by Katherine Pezzella, director of campus life for fraternity and sorority life and Luke Ahearn, student government association vice president. As co-chairs they worked together to help increase civic engagement across Quinnipiac\u2019s campus. This mission started as soon as students walked onto campus. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cEarly on in the school year&#8230;we were doing voter registration because we figured that was the time most students were more likely to get involved with things on campus,\u201d Ahearn said. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Throughout the course of the school year the Election Engagement Committee held different educational events, non-partisan information sessions and election drives on campus. On election day the committee organized transportation to polling locations, giving students the option to register to take a shuttle. In total the committee registered 165 new voters, but not all of them had an easy time at the polls. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">The Election Engagement Committee encouraged students to register to vote in their home towns and request an absentee ballot or register to vote in Hamden by filling out a mail in registration form or going online. Registering in Hamden as a college student is not as easy as it sounds.<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Pezzella said, \u201cwe know that there\u2019s specific rules for college students and the form has to be filled out in a very specific way where they list not only what campus they live on but what their residence room number is, as well as their mailbox number, so there\u2019s a lot of pieces that may be tricky for students.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">She explained that because the mail in registration form has to be filled out in a specific way, there were several forms handed into the committee that were either incomplete or incorrect. When a form was filled out incorrectly, the committee attempted to get in touch with the student who filled it out to make them aware that their registration would not be processed by the registrar. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cUltimately we still had about 15 students who never came back to finish that form,\u201d Pezzella said. \u201cI know that there were at least 15 students who may have thought that they were registered to vote that ultimately did not have a complete voter registration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">After hearing of the issues some students faced at the polls election day, Pezzella and Ahearn sent out a survey to the students they had registered looking to identify those who had issues and to receive more information about those issues.<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cIn the past, Hamden historically has given students trouble in the voter registration process and the voting process,\u201d Ahearn said. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">But in the survey they found only one student who filled out their registration form completely and correctly had an issue. That student was Joe Iasso. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Iasso had submitted a registration form to change his address through the registration drive.<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty simple form you just kind of fill out a new voter registration form and check that you\u2019re just changing the address,\u201d Iasso said. \u201cIt should be really simple for them to change in the system.\u201d <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">On election day he drove to his polling location confident he would be able to vote using his new address, but when he went to check in they told him there was no one registered at that address with his name. An election official was able to look up his information and found out that he was still registered as a resident student on Quinnipiac\u2019s Mount Carmel campus.<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cI was apparently the only student who had an issue but to me there shouldn\u2019t have been any issue at all,\u201d Iasso said. \u201cI should\u2019ve been able to go in and vote by the correct procedure but my form wasn\u2019t processed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Hamden Republican Registrar, Anthony Esposito, said they made sure that every form was processed. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cIf you filled out a form&#8230;we made sure that we got every single one of those registrations in before election day,\u201d Esposito said. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Iasso said this is not the first time he has had an issue with Hamden\u2019s voting registration system. During his freshman year, Iasso held a registration drive for Hamden\u2019s mayoral election with other members of the Student Government Association. Like the registration drive held this past election, they had Quinnipiac students fill out the paper mail in registration forms. Iasso said that he went with the SGA president to drop off the registration forms to the registrar&#8217;s office. When they got there they handed the forms to Esposito who said he could not process all of them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201c[He] gave us back like 20 that he said were not filled out correctly,\u201d Iasso said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Esposito explained that a way college students can try to avoid issues with registration is to go online. Misspelling or even the change of a letter makes a difference in whether or not a registrar can legally process a registration form. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cGoing online, doing something that students do a thousand times a day it\u2019s entering in the computer address, the form comes up and you just fill it out and when you\u2019re all done putting all the data in you confirm it and send it and it comes here electronically,\u201d Esposito explained. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">While this is true for students who are from Connecticut, when students from out of state complete their online registration form, the last step brings them to a confirmation page with their personal information filled out. There is a note at the bottom that instructs students to print out this page and either mail it into the towns registrar office or the secretary of state.<\/p>\n<div\n        class=\"\n          image-block-outer-wrapper\n          layout-caption-below\n          design-layout-inline\n          combination-animation-none\n          individual-animation-none\n          individual-text-animation-none\n        \"\n        data-test=\"image-block-inline-outer-wrapper\"\n    ><\/p>\n<figure\n            class=\"\n              sqs-block-image-figure\n              intrinsic\n            \"\n            style=\"max-width:1242.0px;\"\n        ><\/p>\n<div\n              \n                style=\"padding-bottom:18.03542709350586%;\"\n              \n              class=\"\n                image-block-wrapper\n                \n          \n        \n                has-aspect-ratio\n              \"\n              data-animation-role=\"image\"\n              \n  \n\n          ><br \/>\n            <noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2018-12-16-at-10.02.45-PM.png\" alt=\"A screenshot of the note that is on the last step of the online registration form that out of state students will see.\" \/><\/noscript><img class=\"thumb-image\" data-src=\"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2018-12-16-at-10.02.45-PM.png\" data-image=\"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2018-12-16-at-10.02.45-PM.png\" data-image-dimensions=\"1242x224\" data-image-focal-point=\"0.5,0.5\" alt=\"A screenshot of the note that is on the last step of the online registration form that out of state students will see.\" data-load=\"false\" data-image-id=\"5c1711f570a6ad42158d4f73\" data-type=\"image\" \/>\n          <\/div><figcaption class=\"image-caption-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-caption\">\n<p><em>A screenshot of the note that is on the last step of the online registration form that out of state students will see.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">If students choose to click the above \u201cEmail\u201d option, they are sent an email with instructions that say, \u201cYou are not officially registered to vote until this application is approved. Please print your completed registration (see attached), sign and date the application and deliver it by mail or in person to the Town of Hamden registrar of voters office.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Despite what Esposito said, the form for out of state students is not sent to the registrar&#8217;s office electronically. Instead, students\u2019 personal information is <em>filled out<\/em> electronically into the mail in registration form\u2014the same form that many students typically write into during Quinnipiac\u2019s registration drives. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><em>We reached out to Esposito for comment regarding this but he did not get back to us in time for publication.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Esposito also acknowledges the stigma Quinnipiac students have for voting in Hamden. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cWe get that all the time because you know [Hamden residents] say, \u201cthey\u2019re not here, they don\u2019t know the local issues,\u201d Esposito said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to vote for mayor, they\u2019re gonna vote for legislative council, they don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on but they\u2019re gonna vote anyhow, that\u2019s not fair.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">It is a federal law that gives students the right to choose where they\u2019d like to exercise their right to vote\u2014in their home state or the state of their college. While Esposito believes that students should have this right to choose, he believes restrictions should be placed on students who choose to vote in the state of their college. He thinks the idea of a restriction may satisfy the residents who feel this way. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cI think that students, because they\u2019re really temporary residents, that the offices that they should be allowed to vote for are not the typically local offices but the statewide offices\u2014governor, president, state senator, congressperson,\u201d Esposito said. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">He agrees with the residents who believe that college students do not pay close enough attention to the local state senate and state house of representative races\u2014who the candidates are and what issues they are running on. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cIf they\u2019re local things, you\u2019re voting for what? What are you gonna vote because your parents say that you should vote and you\u2019ve always voted?\u201d Esposito asked. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Esposito said that he knows voting is one of the most important rights you can exercise as an American citizen. But he believes that citizens should not just vote to vote, they should vote to make an impact. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cIf voting is such a great privilege then it should have meaning, then the privilege should reflect that,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to vote, vote for what and how does your vote impact the total vote.\u201d<\/p>\n<div\n        class=\"\n          image-block-outer-wrapper\n          layout-caption-below\n          design-layout-inline\n          combination-animation-none\n          individual-animation-none\n          individual-text-animation-none\n        \"\n        data-test=\"image-block-inline-outer-wrapper\"\n    ><\/p>\n<figure\n            class=\"\n              sqs-block-image-figure\n              intrinsic\n            \"\n            style=\"max-width:100%;\"\n        ><\/p>\n<div\n              \n                style=\"padding-bottom:56.25%;\"\n              \n              class=\"\n                image-block-wrapper\n                \n          \n        \n                has-aspect-ratio\n              \"\n              data-animation-role=\"image\"\n              \n  \n\n          ><br \/>\n            <noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Art-Exhibit-Blog-Banner-copy-3.jpg\" alt=\"Art Exhibit Blog Banner copy 3.jpg\" \/><\/noscript><img class=\"thumb-image\" data-src=\"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Art-Exhibit-Blog-Banner-copy-3.jpg\" data-image=\"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Art-Exhibit-Blog-Banner-copy-3.jpg\" data-image-dimensions=\"560x315\" data-image-focal-point=\"0.5,0.5\" alt=\"Art Exhibit Blog Banner copy 3.jpg\" data-load=\"false\" data-image-id=\"5c171ee770a6ad42158df494\" data-type=\"image\" \/>\n          <\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Student voting was not the only issue in the greater New Haven area. In the state of Connecticut, there were many recounts that continued weeks after the election. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Jorge Cabrera, Hamden resident and Democratic candidate ran against incumbent Republican, George Logan in the 17th District State Senate Race. The result of this race was flipped after a major recount.<\/p>\n<p>   <iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AduT7nJ3dHQ?wmode=opaque&amp;enablejsapi=1\" height=\"480\" width=\"854\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cI didn\u2019t like the direction that our state was going in and didn\u2019t [feel] that our state senator was doing good enough bringing resources back to our district, so that\u2019s why I decided to get involved,\u201d Cabrera said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Going into election day, Cabrera said that his campaign team felt good.<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cWe had been endorsed by President Barack Obama, we had a lot of supporters, there was a lot of energy and excitement,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">That night Cabrera returned to headquarters with his campaign team and waited for the returns to come in, with the race being so close they realized that they would not know the results until the morning.<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cWe sent everyone home and thanked them for support,\u201d Cabrera said. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">When Cabrera woke up the next morning he found out that he was declared the winner of the race. He began to receive congratulatory phone calls and began preparing for his transition into office with a strategy meeting with the Senate Democratic caucus. But the meeting was interrupted when Cabrera was informed by attorneys that there had been a problem in the counting of votes in Ansonia, one of the towns that vote in the 17th District State Senate race, and there would be a mandatory recount.<\/p>\n<p>   <iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"embedly-embed\" src=\"\/\/cdn.embedly.com\/widgets\/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fmaps%2Fd%2Fembed%3Fmid%3D1gewr4bM40tzVZ0tDpTrdOdfvi_Y%26hl%3Den_US&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fmaps%2Fd%2Fviewer%3Fmid%3D1gewr4bM40tzVZ0tDpTrdOdfvi_Y%26hl%3Den_US&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fmaps%2Fd%2Fthumbnail%3Fmid%3D1gewr4bM40tzVZ0tDpTrdOdfvi_Y%26hl%3Den_US&amp;key=61d05c9d54e8455ea7a9677c366be814&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=google&amp;wmode=opaque\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">The towns that vote in the 17th District&nbsp;include: Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Bethany, Derby, parts of Hamden, Naugatuck and Woodbridge.<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cIt was confusion; I was asking myself some questions. You know, what exactly is happening?\u201d &nbsp;Cabrera said. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">He explained that most of the confusion stemmed from the various different explanations they were given for the recount. One explanation they got was that one of the machines broke down in the middle of the day and that officials at the polling location took the ballots out of the broken machine and fed them through another machine. This giving the impression that the machine counted those ballots twice.<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Cabrera was also told that, \u201cabsentee ballots were fed into a machine and may have been counted over two hundred times, which we also couldn\u2019t wrap our heads around.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">After the recount it was concluded that it was a scrivener\u2019s error, meaning someone wrote down the wrong number. They then put the wrong number into the computer system.<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">In the initial reporting, the error, \u201cwent from two to 234,\u201d Cabrera said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">When the recount began, Cabrera and his campaign team held a rally.<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cThe purpose behind the rally was to put a spotlight on the recount process to make sure that the folks that were doing the recount understood that we were demanding that every single vote be counted adequately,\u201d he said. \u201cThe integrity of our political system and the integrity of the outcome of this election was critical.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>   <iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HCzKv4W-TTI?wmode=opaque&amp;enablejsapi=1\" height=\"480\" width=\"854\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">The recount reversed the original results, with Logan narrowly winning the seat with 50.1% of the votes and Cabrera with 49.9%<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Cabrera said, \u201cpeople often say your vote really matters, in my race it really did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><em>We reached out to George Logan, 17th district state senator and the Ansonia registrar\u2019s office and they did not get back to us in time for publication.<\/em><\/p>\n<div\n        class=\"\n          image-block-outer-wrapper\n          layout-caption-below\n          design-layout-inline\n          combination-animation-none\n          individual-animation-none\n          individual-text-animation-none\n        \"\n        data-test=\"image-block-inline-outer-wrapper\"\n    ><\/p>\n<figure\n            class=\"\n              sqs-block-image-figure\n              intrinsic\n            \"\n            style=\"max-width:100%;\"\n        ><\/p>\n<div\n              \n                style=\"padding-bottom:56.25%;\"\n              \n              class=\"\n                image-block-wrapper\n                \n          \n        \n                has-aspect-ratio\n              \"\n              data-animation-role=\"image\"\n              \n  \n\n          ><br \/>\n            <noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Art-Exhibit-Blog-Banner-copy-2.jpg\" alt=\"Art Exhibit Blog Banner copy 2.jpg\" \/><\/noscript><img class=\"thumb-image\" data-src=\"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Art-Exhibit-Blog-Banner-copy-2.jpg\" data-image=\"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Art-Exhibit-Blog-Banner-copy-2.jpg\" data-image-dimensions=\"560x315\" data-image-focal-point=\"0.5,0.5\" alt=\"Art Exhibit Blog Banner copy 2.jpg\" data-load=\"false\" data-image-id=\"5c17143870a6ad42158d6d1c\" data-type=\"image\" \/>\n          <\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Voting issues plagued the U.S. in this midterm election. The question now is how can we move on? And how can we prevent these issues from happening again in 2020?<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">After a human error reversed the result of his race, Cabrera said he\u2019s been looking into preventing these issues in the future.<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cI\u2019ve been talking to other legislatures about possible legislation for more oversight and accountability,\u201d Cabrera said. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">He has questions about what kind of training and experience the people who run our elections and polling locations have. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cWe have a strong tradition in Connecticut of local rule and local authority over our election process which I think is important,\u201d Cabrera said. \u201cBut I think we need to balance that to make sure these kinds of mistakes don\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Esposito believes many of these errors, especially the human ones, happen because of the shifts many of these election officials work on election day. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of reading and recording and you\u2019re asking people who have already put in a 15 hour day to do the recording,\u201d Esposito said. \u201cThere could be an opportunity for error at any place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">He said the long lines in Connecticut for some polling locations are unavoidable because of election day registration. Connecticut is one of fifteen states that offer election day registration which gives citizens the opportunity to register and then vote on election day. Esposito only knows of one town in Connecticut that was able to successfully execute election day registration without a long line. He believes this was because of their staffing, resources and set up.<\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cWe had as many people as we could working here in the office taking on all the people,\u201d Esposito said. \u201cYet at 7:00 p.m. I had to go out into the hallway and tell people if you\u2019re not standing at the counter with a ballot in your hand at 8:00 p.m. you\u2019ll have to go home, because that\u2019s the law.\u201d<\/p>\n<div\n        class=\"\n          image-block-outer-wrapper\n          layout-caption-below\n          design-layout-inline\n          combination-animation-none\n          individual-animation-none\n          individual-text-animation-none\n        \"\n        data-test=\"image-block-inline-outer-wrapper\"\n    ><\/p>\n<figure\n            class=\"\n              sqs-block-image-figure\n              intrinsic\n            \"\n            style=\"max-width:856.0px;\"\n        ><\/p>\n<div\n              \n                style=\"padding-bottom:55.84112548828125%;\"\n              \n              class=\"\n                image-block-wrapper\n                \n          \n        \n                has-aspect-ratio\n              \"\n              data-animation-role=\"image\"\n              \n  \n\n          ><br \/>\n            <noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2018-12-16-at-10.14.00-PM.png\" alt=\"A picture at Hamden\u2019s election day registration polling location with a line of people waiting.\" \/><\/noscript><img class=\"thumb-image\" data-src=\"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2018-12-16-at-10.14.00-PM.png\" data-image=\"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2018-12-16-at-10.14.00-PM.png\" data-image-dimensions=\"856x478\" data-image-focal-point=\"0.5,0.5\" alt=\"A picture at Hamden\u2019s election day registration polling location with a line of people waiting.\" data-load=\"false\" data-image-id=\"5c171481c2241bba3e8402b1\" data-type=\"image\" \/>\n          <\/div><figcaption class=\"image-caption-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-caption\">\n<p><em>A picture at Hamden\u2019s election day registration polling location with a line of people waiting.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Iasso plans on meeting with a member of the secretary of state\u2019s staff in the near future in hopes to discuss an easier voter registration process for out of state students. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">\u201cI would hope that the state would try to find some way to implement a college student system for voting in their town[s], we have so many schools in Connecticut aside from Quinnipiac,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope to be able to make change for all of those college students.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">In the state of Connecticut citizens experienced long lines at polls, students had issues during their registration processes and election officials held recounts for several races in the days following the election. Hear the stories of the issues that happened during and after the midterm elections and what steps individuals are taking to avoid them in 2020. <\/p>\n<p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,5],"tags":[86,295,296,84,293,247,4,294],"class_list":["post-566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-capstone-projects","category-hamden","tag-election-day","tag-election-engagement-committee","tag-election-issues","tag-hamden-elections","tag-jorge-cabrera","tag-midterm-elections","tag-quinnipiac","tag-student-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2353,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions\/2353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}