Signs Of The Times

Tuesday’s mayoral election appeared headed for a larger voter turnout than in the September primary, but perhaps not as high as the last time the same two candidates squared off.

Three-term incumbent Mayor Toni Harp faces a rematch challenge from Justin Elicker in the election. Elicker, who defeated Harp in a Sept. 10 primary, is the Democratic candidate. Harp is running on the Working Families Party ticket.

An extra 19,776 New Haveners — registered Republican, third-party, and unaffiliated voters — are eligible to cast ballots Tuesday as compared to the primary. So, not surprisingly, more people had shown up by 1 p.m. Tuesday than did by that time on Sept. 10. The numbers were not quite as high as they were at that time in the 2013 general election match-up between Elicker and Harp, according to people tracking the votes. For instance, 551 voters had shown up so far at the Ward 18 polls in Morris Cove, as compared to 567 at that time in 2013.

One exception was Westville’s Ward 25, an Elicker stronghold. By 2 p.m. 822 voters had shown up —matching the turnout at that point in 2013. In Newhallville’s Ward 20, a Harp stronghold, under 300 had shown up, compared to 425 at that time in 2013. By day’s end, 1,469 Ward 25 voters cast ballots in the 2013 rate, 1,008 of them for Elicker.

Absentee balloting is also topping the primary totals. The City Clerk’s office reported issuing 1,383 absentee ballots, of which 870 had been reported by noon. In the Sept. 10 primary, 674 people returned absentee ballots.

The passions of the day, as well as the planning, were reflected in printed and handwritten signs — and the interactions between people holding them, such as a hopeful encounter in Ward 1.

Downtown: Mutual Respect

Elicker himself (pictured with Ward 1 Democratic alder candidate Eli Sabin) was outside Ward 1’s downtown public library polling place Tuesday morning at around 10:45.

He said he had just made polling place stops in Ward 18, Fair Haven, and East Rock.

“I’ve found that both campaigns so far have been respectful,” he said. In Ward 19, his supporters and Harp supporters were even sharing a table, sitting side by side and laughing together.

He said he’s happy to see that inter-campaign accord, considering how contentious the race has been at points.

That level of mutual respect was on display just a few feet from where Elicker and Sabin were standing, as Hamden resident and Harp supporter Yasmin Amico twirled a light-up hoola-hoop that encircled a Harp campaign sign.

“It’s all about democracy,” she said. ​“It’s all about equality.” She said she supports Harp (with her words and volunteer time, and not with her vote, as she doesn’t live in town) because ​“she has stayed the course and you go with what you know.” She respects the mayor for keeping New Haven a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants.

She said she has no problems supporting a Working Families Party candidate because the latter party represents ​“the Democratic ideals.”

“There is no animosity” between her and Elicker supporters, she said. ​“It’s all about democracy.”

When this reporter asked her about the pre-primary lawn sign she was holding, which described Harp as the ​“endorsed Democrat,” Amico asked to ​“plead the Fifth” as to whether or not that sign was appropriate to wave for the candidate who lost the Democratic Party.

She then flipped the hoola-hoop to reveal a more up-to-date lawn sign, which called on voters to cast their ballots for Harp as the third-party candidate.

And she continued with her sidewalk chants for Harp.

“Equality, democracy!” she sang at passing cars. ​“No children in cages! All people should be free!”

Later in the morning, she continued holding the third-party sign — and keeping up a spirited chant.

Dwight: Are You ​“Eliker”?

A handwritten note pointed the way for Mallike Okert’s vote.

Okert, who grew up in Sri Lanka, was asked as she left the Ward 2 voting place at Troup School whom she had voted for.

She retrieved the note from her pocket. It read ​“Eliker.”

“This guy,” she said.

Okert said she didn’t know anything about the candidates She said had met someone at a nearby mini-mart on Monday who wrote down the name and advised her to vote that way. She took the advice.

“You him?” Okert asked a reporter.

Westville: Preempting Soggy Problems

The intermittent light rain Tuesday prompted some advance planning at Westville’s Ward 25 polling station at Edgewood School — in the form of the pictured sign.

Ward Democratic Co-Chair Janis Underwood thought to put up the sign in light of what happened in 2018, when soggy ballots jammed voting machines. That led to overnight counts in wards across town, delaying the final results.

“Just wanting to be proactive and enable everybody to vote efficiently in our ward,” Underwood said.

Newhallville: People Over Party Labels

Mayor Harp may not be the Democratic nominee — but her official third-party status on the ballot didn’t deter Newhallville voters from supporting the incumbent, familiar ​“endorsed Democrat.”

Outside the Lincoln-Basett School polling place on election day morning, a half-dozen Ward 20 voters told the Independent that they cast their ballot for Harp, even though the three-term mayor lost the Democratic Primary in September to challenger Justin Elicker. 

Harp’s name is appearing on the ballot Tuesday on the Working Families Party line, while Elicker’s is in the top slot alongside all the other Democrats running for City Clerk, Alder, and Board of Education.

By 11:30 a.m., 232 Ward 20 votes had cast their ballots. There are 1,166 registered votes in the ward, and 511 Democrats cast votes during September’s primary.

“It doesn’t matter” that she lost the primary and is not officially the Democratic Party candidate in, Newhallville Alder Delphine Clyburn said. ​“She has supported this area” during her six years in office. Clyburn cited lower crime citywide as well as Newhallville-specific housing and economic development initiatives the mayor has led.

Plus, Clyburn added, ​“she got the endorsement” at the Democratic Town Committee convention this summer. ​“No one really helped her” after Harp’s convention win, she said, repeating an oft-repeated line by Harp and her supporters in the aftermath of the mayor’s primary loss. 

Even though she had turned out to a Democratic Party Unity Rally for Elicker in October, Clyburn said Tuesday she is firmly supporting the mayor, and the campaign literature she had in her tent outside the school addressed her own unopposed re-election campaign and not the mayoral race.

Jeannette Sykes (pictured at left, with Elicker supporter Ray Jackson) and Tina Alford cited similar reasons for their continued support for the mayor.

“She’s the voice for the people of New Haven,” Alford said.

“Her record does not change based on her being on the Working Families Party,” Sykes added. Crime is down, she said. Graduation rates are up. ​“She gave wealth to our community.”

Cherry Ann Street resident Shelly Thompson (pictured) said she voted for Harp because of the mayor’s support for the cleaning up and rejuvenation of Cherry Ann Park.

She said she is also worried that Elicker, if elected, would take away after-school programs and free lunch programs for students. When asked where she had heard that rumor, she said on television.

“It did kind of matter to me that she lost” the Democratic primary, Thomspon said. But she was able to overcome her allegiance to voting the Democratic line because, she said, the mayor ​“has been really good with working with our kids.”

An elderly couple that asked to be remain anonymous said they voted for Harp for a simple reason: ​“We stayed with the devil we know.”

Not everyone outside Lincoln-Bassett Tuesday morning was supporting Harp.

“We’re going to repeat what happened in September!” Elicker supporter Ray Johnson declared with a smile and a fist pump. In that Sept. 10 primary, Harp won Ward 20, but by hundreds fewer votes than the last time she faced Elicker.

Former Ward 20 Democratic Town Committee Co-Chair Tonya Smith, who turned out to the polls with her 18-year-old son and first-time voter Brian Salters (both pictured above, with Clyburn), said she decided to stay with the Democratic candidate Tuesday.

“It’s kind of six of one, half a dozen of the other,” she said about the relatively ideological similarity between Harp and Elicker.

Ultimately, she said, she decided to vote with the party — and for change.

“The taxes in New Haven are crazy,” she said. ​“And the shootings in this neighborhood are out of control.”

Salters, a student at Gateway Communtiy College, said he decided whom to vote for based primarily on party affiliation. ​“Almost everyone in my family is a Democrat,” he said, so he had no trouble picking whom he would be casting his ballot for.

Current Ward 20 Co-Chair Oscar Havyarimana, who supported Harp during the primary, sat somewhat dejected under a small blue tent alongside Clyburn. He held up a white leaflet with a list of Democratic candidates.

“I am a Democrat,” he said. ​“And that means these are our candidates.”

At least one voter outside Ward 20’s polls Tuesday morning who wasn’t casting his ballot for either Harp or Elicker. That was independent candidate Seth Poole (pictured, with Sykes), who failed to petition onto the general election ballot but did secure a spot as a write-in candidate. Poole lives in Edgewood and therefore wasn’t at Lincoln-Bassett to cast his vote. Instead, he was making his pitch for Newhallville residents to support the write-in.

“I’m a person who finishes everything he starts,” he said. That’s why he kept campaigning even though his name isn’t officially on the ballot. He wanted to make sure that voters had as many options as possible when they hit the polls Tuesday, said.

Ward 18: Taxes, Taxes, Taxes

Taxes also came up in the East Shore’s Ward 18 polling place at Nathan Hale School for voters throwing their support behind Elicker.

Richard DeBiase (pictured with wife Georgiana) is a homeowner in the East Shore and elsewhere in the city, including in East Rock. He said he voted for Elicker for, among other reasons, issues having to do with the handling of money and, of course, taxes.

“She’s made many costly mistakes in hiring,” said Richard DeBiase, ​“and that cost taxpayers a lot of money.” Then he referenced his own struggle as a property owner.

“We’re retired. We pay our [property] taxes. Here and in East Rock.” But he said there’s a limit to what he can add on to his tenants’ rent in order to help make up the tax increases he’s experiencing. ​“It seriously is putting us behind the [financial] eight-ball. We’re seriously thinking of getting out [that is, leaving New Haven],” he said.

Tim Riera (pictured) felt the same way. The first issue he referenced to explain his vote for Elicker was ​“11 percent. The tax increase.” Riera said he was troubled by what he termed ​“other shenanigans in the budget, like kicking the [financial/fiscal reckoning] can down the road.”

Riera, who has a friend who knows of Elicker’s work at the New Haven Land Trust and praised the candidate to him for that, also said Mayor Harp had made a bad first impression on him. ​“When she said she needed a driver, a police officer [to accompany her]. We trained that officer and [as taxpayers] payed for him. That set me off on the wrong foot.”

Fair Haven: Past Deeds Rewarded

Isaiah Cooper (pictured), on his way to Ward 14’s Atwater Senior Center polling place, said he is going to vote for Elicker because ​“he’s impressive, he’s articulate, and he gets things done.”

Cooper, who is a musician and a lawyer, referenced the placement of a kids’ playground over at Dover Beach a number of years ago when Elicker was an alder. ​“Without his being our alder, he helped get that accomplished,” Cooper said.

Standing under a nearby porch out of the rain, after he voted at Ward 15’s Chatham Street polling place, a man who only wanted to be identified as G‑Money (pictured) said he cast his vote for Harp.

“I feel she’s doing a helluva job,” he said. ​“She’s not perfect. Nobody is. She can’t fix everything. But in the Senate and as mayor she’s done great.”

Victor and Carmen Roldan (pictured), 35-year residents of Fair Haven, said they cast their vote for Elicker for a simple reason: ​“We need a change.”