Dwight Town Hall Eyes Election Education

With less than two weeks before Election Day, a Dwight landlord gathered community leaders and neighbors for a panel discussion about the Nov. 8 ballot — and about the importance of voting every year.

That election-focused civics crash course took place Wednesday evening at Amistad Academy on Edgewood Avenue.

The Massachusetts-based landlord The Community Builders (TCB), which owns the large subsidized Dwight-Kensington apartment complex known as Kensington Square, hosted the town hall in an effort to register and educate residents in the runup to the Nov. 8 general election.

On the ballot this year will be contested races for all of Connecticut’s constitutional offices, including governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, comptroller, secretary of the state, and treasurer. Connecticut voters will also get to vote in contests for U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, state Senate, state House, and probate judge. And they’ll be faced with a ballot question about whether or not Connecticut should permit early voting.

After grabbing a bite of free pizza and cookies, roughly a dozen residents listened to a panel discussion moderated by West River community activist Stacy Spell focusing on explaining the election process and encouraging members to exercise their democratic right to vote. 

The panel was the third in a series of election-focused events hosted by TCB in Dwight. TCB also invited the League of Women Voters to help with voter registration and education.

“We want to provide residents opportunities to get involved in their community to connect them to resources that exist in their community,” TCB Senior Director of Community Life Anne Vinick told the Independent. ​“Especially now that [we’re] just a few weeks away, voter registration is so important, motivating and energizing the community to have a voice.”

Wednesday night’s panel included Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers, Fair Haven Community Management Team Co-Chair Lee Cruz, Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund Community Organizing Director Jennifer Perez Caraballo, Democracy School representative Sandra Okonofua, and Elm City Communities Policy Manager Will Viederman. 

Panelists discussed when and why they first voted as well as races in the state that residents should care about.

“Wow, this is really dating me,” Cruz laughed while answering one of Spell’s questions. ​“But, I first voted in 1980. I had wanted to vote for McGovern in ​‘72, but I couldn’t.”

Panelists also spoke to the constitutional amendment on Connecticut’s ballot this year asking voters if the state should allow for early voting. 

“Every race is important for different reasons,” Perez Caraballo told attendees. ​“We don’t have guaranteed time off. We don’t have guaranteed pay sick days for everybody, So in the state of Connecticut, we absolutely need to be able to do early voting, right, and so this is a big question that they’re asking, especially since Connecticut is only one of four states that doesn’t have early voting.” 

For Spell, moderating the panel was an opportunity to get more people from his community involved in the process, saying that the more people involved would lead to neighbors having more power in the political process.

“Some of our residents, especially Black and brown residents, have never voted,” Spell told this reporter.

“It’s time for people to not bury their heads in the sand when we have issues in our community that need to be dealt with. And the only way those issues can be dealt with as we’re getting them to realize the importance of their role and being a part of the political process.”

TCB began its outreach for the event with the League of Women’s Voters, which provided contacts with many of the panelists as well as LWV organizers to help residents with voter registration and education. 

Roughly a dozen Dwight residents attended the panel to listen in and ask questions about not just this year’s election, but also about how the city’s Board of Alders works and their responsibilities to constituents. 

“I came here to learn and get a better understanding of my community and how to get more involved in the process,” Delisa Tolson, who owns a childcare center on Kensington Street, told the Independent.