Democracy Grinds On Amid Pandemic

Jim Owen dropped in on his neighbor Shawna Reed to discuss two potentially fruitful matters: absentee ballots and black raspberries.

Owen (at left in photo) was one of dozens of Westville ward workers who began hitting the doors Sunday with the challenging mission of getting voters to care about, and participate in, the Aug. 11 statewide Democrat primary.

You know: The one Connecticut is holding amid a pandemic, in which Democrats and Republicans will ​“choose” their preferred presidential nominees, who have already been basically decided for months. (One’s named Trump, the other, Biden.)

In some communities (like Hamden and the lower Naugatuck Valley), voters will also cast ballots in contested primaries for state legislative seats. In most, including New Haven, no races are on the ballot except the presidential one. Owen is one of 40 Ward 25 committee heelers assigned to make contact with a total of 1,946 registered Democrats over the next four weeks to urge them to exercise their constitutional right to vote anyway, in part to test the state’s Covid-19-tailored election machinery in a dry run for the fateful main event, the Nov. 3 general election.

They especially want people to cast absentee ballots to discover and fix any bugs in that process in advance of November, in case Covid-19 continues raging and voters fear showing up at the polls.

Owen had his arguments and informational flyers ready when a beagle hound responded to his knock on Reed’s Alden Avenue front door.

“That’s Mindy,” Owen said. ​“She’s a project.”

Reed (at right in top photo) soon opened the door, and stood inside while she and Owen chatted from a safe distance. Owen asked if she had received the primary absentee ballot application the secretary of the state has mailed to every registered Democrat and Republican.

Reed wasn’t sure. It may have arrived. ​“We voted by mail last year,” she said, so she presumes she and her husband will again.

Owen urged her to return the application so a ballot arrives in time for her to fill it out and submit it. He informed her that the state has added concerns about Covid-19 as a legal reason for voting absentee in the primary, so she could check that box.

Then talk turned to the black raspberry canes that birds ​“planted” besides Owen’s house a few doors down. The berries are ripening now — first red, then turning black, which means they’re ready for picking. Owen urged Reed to visit and take some home. She in turn urged him to grab a packet of Oreos from a bag she had on the porch.

Before Owen set out Sunday afternoon, he joined two dozen fellow volunteers (including Maya and Malcolm Welfare, left and center in above photo) for a pep talk on Woodside Terrace outside the home of Democratic 25th Ward Committee Co-Chair Janis Underwood.

Underwood (pictured) assembled flyers with voting information as well as pamphlets for State Sen. Gary Winfield and State Rep. Pat Dillon, who are running for reelection in the Nov. 3 general election. Then she, Winfield, Dillon, and Alder Adam Marchand pitched the ward workers on making the pitch.

“We don’t expect you to risk your lives around this” given fears of contracting Covid-19, Underwood said. People could knock on doors and then speak with people from a safe distance, or else just leave the campaign information and call the voters later. Make sure people received their absentee ballot applications and plan to return them to the state, she said. She spoke of how primary votes still count — for instance, even though Bernie Sanders is no longer running for president, a supporter who checks off his name signals a desire for the party to adopt his policies. She also spoke of the urgency of working out the voting process kinks in this ​“trial run” to ensure that the Nov. 3 general election goes smoothly.

“We know we’re going to get hit again” with a coronavirus resurgence, Winfield (pictured) told the gathering. He also referenced the social-justice/police accountability protests sweeping the nation amid the pandemic. ​“It’s a critical election. Who’s in office matters a lot…. There are people in office who get it. There are people in office who don’t get it…. You will help” decide who eventually gets in, he said.

Dillon (at left in photo) added climate change and the economic downturn to the critical issues at stake this year. ​“Anyone under 40, we owe it to those two generations to try to fix this mess. We need to have a future. It begins here.”

“This is the ward that rocks and rolls,” declared Alder Marchand (pictured), referring to how Ward 25 consistently ranks among the top vote-pulling precincts in town. ​“This primary is important because it’s a prelude to November…. We’re going to see how we can run an election in a pandemic.” Marchand urged door-knockers to remind voters that ​“democracy has not stopped because there’s a nasty virus and a nasty president. We’re going to roll on until November — and win.”

Ward committee member Jay Sokolow informed the group that Connecticut Republicans have filed suit to challenge the decision by Secretary of the State Denise Merrill to offer Covid-19 health fears as a reason to cast absentee ballots. In the event that effort succeeds, Sokolow suggested, the canvassers should suggest that voters also note any other legal and honest reasons they’re seeking to vote by mail (plans to be out of town, for instance, or other health concerns).

Owen took note of that point. Thus primed, armed with his leaflets, wearing two face masks and a faded ​“Westville Rocks” T‑shirt, Owen set off on hitting the first of 75 doors, behind which live 125 registered Democratic voters on his assignment list.

He knows many of them from the neighborhood. A retired Yale IT person who’ll turn 70 a few weeks after America chooses its president for the next four years in November, Owens has been involved in the neighborhood for decades. He has also been knocking on doors for the ward committee for the past three or four election cycles. He knows which people on his blocks tend to be home, who tends to come to the door, who’s often out back.

His visits reflected how, even in a pandemic, much of the grassroots work of democracy remains the same: It begins with volunteers showing up on the porches, at the doors, by the fences of their neighbors. It involves making personal connections, with a mix of basic factual information about how to participate and arguments for why it matters. And in a pandemic, some of the information changes, and making contact can be trickier.

Some voters, like Eva Scopino (pictured), were willing to open the door, maintain a distance from the threshold, and engage in friendly conversation. Some spoke from behind a window or closed door and asked Owen to leave information, while he sought to determine if they a) knew about the primary; b) had indeed noticed their absentee ballot applications; and c) mailed them in.

Some neighbors, like Libby and Mark Abraham (pictured), donned masks, opened the door wide, and made sure they fully understood the process.

Some doors, Owen knew from experience and observation, were not likely to open.

Owen ran into one familiar face on the sidewalk. The woman is not on his list; she lives nearby, but not on the block. She had been visiting a friend for a glass of wine. Owen recently drove her to an optometrist appointment. Owen now asked about her absentee ballot application.“I looked at it quickly. I thought it was for the November election,” said the woman (who declined to be named in this article). Owen told her about the primary and urged her to send back the application, then fill out the ballot. ​“It’ll save you the trouble of waiting in line and risking getting exposed to the virus” on primary day, he said.

He didn’t knock on Linda Couden’s door. He knew he’d find her in the backyard.

Couden walked up to the fence when she saw Owen.

“I’m here to encourage you to vote absentee” on Aug. 11, Owen told her.

“I’m a guarantee,” Couden responded. She’d already filled out and sent in the application.

“When you’re finished later,” she added, ​“I need something changed on my computer.” Owen, who used to spend his working days running and setting up computer back-up servers for Yale, regularly helps Couden out with her machine.

He’ll swing by and ​“we’ll figure it out,” he promised her — once he finished knocking on some more doors.