Comments on: The Numbers of the Election, Sort of

By: Secondhand Rose

Secondhand Rose — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:19:48 +0000

What’s my expertise? Only being employed in the Registrars’ office under Registrars Ann Artell (R) and Helen Carrozzelli (D). And only working at various elections as a checker for most of the 1980s until Ms. Artell’s retirement.

(You can get out the Raid for those crickets now…)

I’m aware that people can register to vote in ways other than going to City Hall. However, the most *logical* thing to do if one has a question as to where one votes is to contact the Registrars’ Office and *ask* them, since they’re the ones in charge of conveying that information to the general public. But one won’t know unless one *asks*, will one?

I doubt the Secretary of State’s website or Rock the Vote (?!) is going to be able to tell a Norwalk resident which school is his or her polling place for elections. And frankly, I can’t believe that one would have any degree of success attempting to access that information anywhere but at City Hall.

By: turfgrrl

turfgrrl — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:38:51 +0000

Secondhand Rose: You can register to vote without ever stepping foot in City Hall. Try Rock The Vote, or the Secretary of State’s web site.

And if by chance you pick a non municipal year to register, you may get a little card about the voting location for that year, but gee whiz, it changes for you because you happen to live in one of those odd gerrymandered districts where one side of your street is one voting district and the other side is another. Too bad. Welcome to Norwalk.

For the record, I happen to know all about how many municipalities have split street districts with changing voting locations, and Norwalk is a rarity. which I know as fact because I’ve designed campaign GOTV statewide, congressional district-wide and municipal databases and web applications. What’s you expertise? [insert crickets here]

By: Secondhand Rose

Secondhand Rose — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:29:24 +0000

A person arriving in a new town wouldn’t have to “read” anything. Isn’t it a law that registered voters must register with the town they now reside in, and remove themselves from the voter rolls in the town they’ve left? And where would one do that? At City Hall, in the Registrars’ Office. It’s only commonsensical to ask, while doing this, where is the location they would vote at. It would never occur to most people to bother trying to search for that info – they’d either call City Hall, or go to the City of Norwalk website if they felt they had to go online. It makes more sense than just “googling” and hoping to get lucky.

By: turfgrrl

turfgrrl — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:46:24 +0000

The problem in relying on the “media” including here, for polling place information is that it assumes that everyone “reads” local media upon arriving in a new town. What happens when you type in where do I vote norwalk, ct in google? Amazingly the city of Norwalk is not in the top 10 list, but a whole bunch of organizations are that people may or may not like to obtain voting information from.

And the google search only works if you can access the internet, from work let’s say, and know what to type in. Who really calls the voting locations polling places these days? One of the great things about living in different cities over the years is that I’ve seen first hand how a city’s can improve municipal voting participation if it engages its residents from the day they move in instead of thinking that everyone grew up in the area and just knows stuff.

The bigger picture is why such a small state bothers with voting in person. Vote by mail, keep the paper trail and make it easier to participate. For those luddites who prefer to head to a voting station make it simple, one place for all. Is it that hard to hand the right ballot to people who might live in one taxing district versus another?

By: Secondhand Rose

Secondhand Rose — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:47:39 +0000

In the weeks leading up to the election there are articles ad nauseum listing polling places, polling times, and reminding people that if they’re unsure of where they are to vote they should contact the Registrars’ Office at City Hall. It’s too bad that people are so lazy they can’t even be bothered to find this out without having to show up at the incorrect polls and then take it out on the workers as if it is their fault the voter is supposed to be somewhere else.

Just another case of everyone wanting someone else to do their job for them.

By: Chris Donahue

Chris Donahue — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:56:48 +0000

I can’t speak for what was mailed by the Republican Party, because I didn’t see it, but I know that at least one of the Democratic Party’s mailers listed the polling place, but not everyone reads those, I guess…

By: Secondhand Rose

Secondhand Rose — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:15:08 +0000

I’ve worked as a checker during elections many times, and I’m always amazed at how many people come to the polls completely unprepared without identification – or who don’t even appear at the correct poll in the first place, and then berate the checkers, the moderators, and anyone else within earshot about the fact that they’ve shown up in the wrong place or are unprepared (and in some cases, completely unwilling) to show their driver’s licenses or other ID necessary to be able to vote.

Come on, people – you know your voting place changes every two years. It’s not that hard for a grown up adult to remember which poll you are voting at! You can remember to buy that pack of cigarettes, right? Or get to the bank to cash a check? Surely you have enough common sense to remember where it is you vote at every year.

And please, if you’re not sure about where you’re supposed to be, it helps if you give yourself enough time to get to the correct polling place so you don’t show up too late to be able to cast your vote. It’s not the poll workers’ fault that you went to the wrong place first. You have almost an entire year to contact the Registrars’ Office at City Hall to find out where your polling place is. It’s YOUR responsibility to know where you’re voting.

By: Barnstorm

Barnstorm — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 05:16:19 +0000

It used to help when little cards were sent out reminding voters where their polling places were for any given election. I don’t think the city does that any more(at least they didn’t for this past election….hmmmm) I vote at West Rocks for local elections and Cranbury for national. Really not that hard to keep track of. The reason is because of congressional districts as opposed to local taxing districts. Good luck trying to simplify THAT. Again, voter “confusion” is simply laziness or apathy. We’ve become so encumbered by the entitlement mentality we need to have everything handed to us on a silver platter or we’re not interested. To that lady who “just won’t vote” if she had to go someplace else I’d say.”Go home and stay there. Norwalk doesn’t need stupid or lazy people deciding it’s future.” I know that may sound harsh to some, but folks, we really need to get a grip.We can’t keep spending our energies on the clueless. If we want good government we have a hell of a lot of waking up to do, or else be satisfied with the mediocre. In other circles it’s called “taking personal responsibility”.

One method that has shown to be quite effective is the “vote by mail” method. It has been a huge success in Oregon and other places. You never have to wonder where to go because the ballot comes to your house. In some places it has shown a 75% voter response. Certainly worth exploring if you’re serious about increasing participation.

By: Chris Donahue

Chris Donahue — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 04:41:34 +0000

I posted this on another thread about public financing of campaigns, as I thought the financial information may have provided a little insight into the relative costs of a local election, but Stuart has an additional point here that I noticed when I was working the polls on Election Day.
A lot of voters seemed confused by the change in voting location from one election to the next. I reminded people when I was campaigning door to door, because I too had a different polling place for the 2009 local election than I did in the 2008 Presidential election. I actually met a voter outside Ponus Ridge Middle School who told me if she was “at the wrong place again” she would “just not vote.” Obviously not the best way to generate additional voter turnout.

By: Barnstorm

Barnstorm — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 04:01:27 +0000

And exactly how did older Norwalkers exclude younger residents this past election? There were some “younger” candidates running this past election. Seems to me the process is wide open, but it requires a potential activist to have 1)ideas, 2) the ability to communicate those ideas, and 3) the willingness to go out and work for it. Nobody forced the younger residents to stay away from “the process”. They apparently chose to do so with their own free will. Don’t blame older Norwalkers for the young being lazy or apathetic.

The “younger residents” need to learn they must work for what they want. Nobody is just going to hand it to you. Jeez, now you’ve got me sounding just like my father almost 40 years ago.

Nobody rides for free,
Nobody gets it like they want it to be,
Nobody hands you any guarantees,
Nobody.

Jackson Browne, “Boulevard”

Ask Amanda Brown, Anna Duleep, or Kelly Straniti if they consider themselves “old”. You better be prepared to run if you do.