Nora Grace-Flood photo
Among the 400 same-day registrants (as of 4 p.m.) lining up to vote at City Hall.
Yale School of Management student Brittany Swanson waited too long to send in an absentee ballot to vote against celebrity physician and Republican Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania this election.
So she instead found herself at City Hall, registering to become a New Haven voter to throw some last minute support towards Connecticut’s Democratic ticket.
Swanson joined nearly 400 people — many of whom were, like her, local students — who signed up to vote on the second floor of City Hall by 4 p.m. Tuesday through the same-day voter registration program known as Election Day Registration, or EDR.
Brittany Swanson: Votes out of "fear for Republicans."
EDR Head Moderator Dominic Tammaro told the Independent by noon on Tuesday that getting New Haveners ready to vote through EDR had been “very steady” so far. That’s quite the difference from more chaotic outings at EDR in previous years, when City Hall has been swamped with student voters looking to register locally — some of whom have gotten turned away because of just how long the lines have been.
Tammaro, whose son Andrew Tammaro is the chair of the Hamden Republican Town Committee, has overseen same-day voter registration efforts in Hamden and New Haven for years. He said New Haven’s City Hall registration typically draws a large number of Yalies, depending on how hard the university encourages students to vote.
EDR Head Moderator Dominic Tammaro.
In addition to voting Democratic across the ballot, Swanson voted yes on Connecticut’s early voting ballot question — as did a host of other individuals registering last-minute for a chance to participate in the democratic process in their adopted home state.
“I usually always vote,” Swanson said. Beyond meeting a basic marker of civic engagement, Swanson said she sees filling in ballot bubbles as a means of attempting to take control over “fear of Republicans.”
This year, she said, she would have liked to help battle the nation-wide red wave by voting in the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race between Republican Mehmet Oz and Democratic candidate Lt. Gov. John Fetterman.
People registering to vote Tuesday inside City Hall.
That’s because she previously lived with her family in Pennsylvania prior to leaving for New Haven two years back to prepare for a career in corporate sustainability at the Yale School of Management.
She remembered voting for Biden in the swing state two years back: “In 2020 it was fun to vote there… but maybe fun’s not the word.”
This year’s hotly contested Keystone State Senate race might decide which party has control over Congress’s upper chamber over the next two years.
“I debated driving there today,” Swanson said about Pennsylvania. But just as school work got in the way of sending in an absentee ballot a week before Nov. 8, Swanson said her commitment to getting to class in-person stood in the way of making it to Pennsylvania in-person.
So she made her way to City Hall on Church Street for EDR, and proceeded to vote Democrat for each candidate — “it seems like the most effective plan to back one party,” she said, explaining that she’s hoping to support politicians who protect abortion rights and progressive environmental policies making it into office.
"Blue Down The Line"
Kelly Gunther: Blue across the board.
Kelly Gunther, a 29-year-old Yale postdoctoral researcher of developmental psychopathology, echoed Swanson’s views. A Baltimore native who has also voted in Pennsylvania in years past, she said she tried to register for voting upon arriving in New Haven in August but failed as it was made “a lot more complicated” because she didn’t have a Connecticut state driver’s license.
Soon enough the deadline had passed to register online. So on Tuesday she walked into City Hall and got fast support in signing up to vote in her new state. “It probably took me longer to park than to register,” she remarked.
“I’m not super up to date on Connecticut politics, but I believe in human rights. So that’s the way I vote,” she said. Like Swanson, she said electing individuals who unilaterally defend abortion rights as well as “responsible gun ownership” was important to her this year.
Benjamin Ball — Nashville to New Haven strong.
Yale Divinity School student and Tennessee native Benjamin Ball, 23, also said he went “blue down the line,” with the exception of a few Green Party candidates, such as Justin Paglino, the Guilford-based congressional candidate pushing for single-payer health care and looking to unseat 16-term incumbent Democrat Rosa DeLauro.
He said he views voting as a chance to participate in the local community and to show what policies matter to the public. Ball added that he always prefers to vote in person when possible — so combining registration and voting on Tuesday turned the process into a one-stop shop.
Ball shared that universal health care and climate protections are at the top of his list of priorities this voting season, as well as making sure to grant “people as much access as possible to and the chance to participate in elections.”
“Connecticut, compared to other states, makes it relatively easy to vote,” he said, remembering the complications he faced while trying to register to vote in Nashville as an 18-year-old. “Hopefully the amendment allowing for early voting will make it even easier.”
Like the Swallows returning to Capistrano The New Haven Independent runs a story about Yalies gaming the system and getting caught by waking up on Election Day surprised that there are some pesky rules. Dominic Tammaro "depending on how hard the university encourages students to vote." What does this mean exactly? Aren't these the same students that are changing the world one Bioswales at a time or are "Saving Democracy" but have trouble with the process?