Kids Get Out The Polls In Newhallville

A new political polling group arrived at Lincoln Bassett School and discovered two preliminary findings: Newhallville is an overwhelmingly Democratic neighborhood — and ​“the floor is lava!”

Those were the conclusions of roughly two dozen preschoolers and elementary school students from Harris and Tucker School’s after-school programs. 

Those students stopped by Lincoln Bassett at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday to ask voters about their political preferences. Three ​“team leaders” around 10 years old carried clipboards and herded clusters of their younger friends to approach voters exiting the polls. 

Their task? To ask voters whether they had cast their ballots for Democrats, Republicans, or a ​“split ticket” among multiple parties. They also took breaks from their civics crash course to play the occasional game, like pretending that the concrete sidewalk beneath their feet was actually made of lava.

Avery Roberson first approached Mayor Justin Elicker, who had been greeting voters at the school, with a script and clipboard in hand. ​“Hi, my name is Avery, and I am from Harris and Tucker School,” she said. ​“How did you vote? Democrat, Republican, or split ticket?”

“I voted Democrat,” Elicker said.

Roberson notched a first tally mark under the ​“Democratic” category on her sheet. ​“Why?” she asked Elicker.

“I think Democrats are compassionate to everyone in the city,” he said.

Similar conversations played out between the students and many other voters in the heavily Democratic ward. 

“I keep on getting ​‘Democratic.’ I haven’t gotten ​‘Republican’ or ​‘split ticket,’ ” reported 10-year-old Carmelo, whose worksheet soon included a long row of tally marks representing Democratic voters.

"Republican! Republican!"

Harris and Tucker Principal Kim Harris had brought the team of preschoolers and elementary schoolers to Dixwell’s Wexler-Grant polling place earlier that morning. Later in the day, she planned to take them to Celentano and King-Robinson schools. 

She said the goal of the survey is teaching the kids about data collection and ​“acclimating them to civics.” The project ties into a previous survey that students conducted on a previous election day about voters’ ​“social determinants of health,” the political and environmental factors affecting health outcomes (read about that in the Arts Paper here.)

Harris said she wants her students to leave with the knowledge that in order to address public health conditions, ​“We have to know the people with the power of the pen” — the political leaders in charge of making laws.

“I love this stuff so much,” she beamed.

Harris and Tucker volunteer Carlota Clark celebrated the survey project’s effect of introducing kids to the voting process long before they’ll be eligible to cast their own ballots. ​“A lot of young people don’t know what to do” once they come of age to vote, Clark said.

As a steady trickle of voters entered and exited the elementary school, the kids tallied up responses with enthusiasm. 

“Republican! Republican!” a pair of excited preschoolers yelled. They pronounced the long word triumphantly as they skipped over to Harris, bearing their first tally mark for the ward’s minority party.

Minutes later, another group called out, ​“Ms. Kim! We got another Democrat!”

In between survey questions, preschoolers broke out into spontaneous dance moves and intermittent ​“floor-is-lava” games.

By the end of the day, across four polling places, the students counted 192 people who voted for all Democrats, seven who voted for all Republicans, six who voted for a mix of political parties, 11 who didn’t want to share their votes, and one person who realized they couldn’t vote because they weren’t an American citizen.

The Ballot Comes Alive

The young pollsters had arrived at Lincoln Bassett at a particularly opportune time: nearly every Democratic candidate on the ballot, plus some other local leaders, had gathered at the Newhallville school to thank and encourage voters.

The kids squeezed into successive group photos with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Gov. Ned Lamont, Elicker, State Sen. Gary Winfield, State Rep. Toni Walker, and Treasurer candidate Erick Russell. 

Secretary of the State candidate Stephanie Thomas and State Rep. Robyn Porter arrived later, by the time the kids were hard at work.

Soon, a Ned Lamont campaign bus pulled up beside the school. For half an hour, Lamont staffers set up a tent by the school with a giant cardstock photo-frame setup that appeared rather underused. 

Music blasted from a speaker and staffers handed out campaign t‑shirts by the bunch.

The political capital in the Lincoln Bassett parking lot had amassed to such an extent that Democratic Ward 20 Co-Chair Barbara Vereen began approaching every voter with the news that nearly every Democratic candidate on the ballot was there in person. 

“If you got a question, you could go ask them,” she said, pointing to the Lamont bus, again and again.

Four Decades of Newhallville Poll Work

By 12:30 p.m., 378 voters in Ward 20 had cast their ballots. 

A total of 2,405 are registered to vote in the neighborhood, according to moderator Deveria Peterson, who oversaw the flurry of name-checking and ballot-submitting that had temporarily taken over the bright, mural-laden Lincoln Bassett cafeteria.

Peterson has been working New Haven election days nearly every year since she turned 19, she said. She’s now 60. Her favorite interactions on election day are with first-time voters, she said. ​“I like to see the young people, because they are our present and our future.”

While Peterson is a Westville resident, she said that many Ward 20 voters mistake her for a Newhallville neighbor, since she works at Lincoln Bassett most years. Peterson’s late sister, Linda DuBose, lived in the neighborhood on Daisy Street up until her death two years ago. DuBose was the person who first encouraged Peterson to work at the polls as a teenager. 

So over the last two years, working the polls at Lincoln Bassett has taken on a new meaning for Peterson. ​“I do it in her memory,” Peterson said.