Stephen Wizner thought he got his long-awaited chance Thursday to cast an absentee ballot for Joe Biden — until he looked at the envelope he was about to mail.
Wizner (pictured) is one of over 11,000 New Haveners (and counting) who have requested absentee ballots for the Nov. 3 general election. At 82 years old, he didn’t want potentially to expose himself to Covid-19 by voting in person.
He was enthusiastic about voting in the general election. He was among the first wave of New Haveners to receive their actual absentee ballots in the mail this week; his arrived at his Westville home on Wednesday afternoon. Thursday morning, he filled it out, then prepared to slip it into the envelope provided for mailing it to the City Town Clerk’s Office.
That’s when Wizner noticed that that envelope identified the ballot as coming from a different voter, from a different neighborhood: one Gregory Alain Huber.
Wizner, a professor emeritus at Yale Law School, felt disappointed —and “outraged.”
“It seems to me a lot of people wouldn’t notice” the error, he said. “I’m worried that too many of these votes might not be counted. It’s so important to vote in this election.”
He also expressed concern that errors like this, even if innocently committed, might contribute to efforts by President Donald Trump to discredit the results of the election.
Over in the Prospect Hill neighborhood, Gregory Alain Huber (pictured) returned home from a bike ride with his family Thursday afternoon and opened the absentee ballot that had arrived at his home.
“Look!” he called out to his wife. “I got somebody else’s absentee ballot. It’s Steve Wizner’s!”
It turned out Huber knows Wizner: Wizner was among a group of professors who took Hubert to dinner at the Union League in 1999 to woo him to take a job as a political science professor at Yale. Huber took the job, and is still here. (File under, “New Haven = Small Town.”)
Huber — who chairs Yale’s poli sci department and whose recent publications have explored “Local demographic changes and US presidential voting, 2012 to 2016,” “The Policy Basis of Measured Partisan Animosity in the United States” and “Partisan Bias in Factual Beliefs about Politics” — had already been concerned about whether absentee balloting would work well in this election. He said he had contacted the secretary of the state’s office to look into the issue.
Upon receiving the wrong ballot Thursday, his concerns were renewed.
“I’m not surprised this would happen” given that Connecticut is conducting a far greater exercise in voting by mail than ever before.
“The question is: If I vote with Steve Wizner’s ballot,” and if Wizner were then to show up at his polling station on Nov. 3, he then wouldn’t get to vote, noted Huber, who teaches American politics.
And the bigger question: How widespread is this error?
He and Wizner weren’t the only ones to receive incorrect ballots in New Haven.
Huber sent a message to a neighborhood listserv after receiving his ballot Thursday, asking if others had also gotten the wrong ones.
Huber’s mother-in-law, Susan Simon, for instance, received an absentee ballot this week intended for a Fair Haven woman named Kiara llize Jimenez.
Wizner’s wife Rachel received a ballot intended for a woman in the Dwight neighborhood named Victoria Vebell.
Vebell (pictured) hasn’t yet received a ballot in the mail. She’s eager to get it. The day she received the application for the ballot, she walked to the government office building at 200 Orange St. to turn it in. This week she attended a Dwight Community Management Team meeting, at which she pressed a local elections official about when she’d receive the actual ballot.
“My daily prayer,” she said Thursday, “is: Please God. Make Trump and the Republicans go away.”
Smart Vows 24-Hour Remedy
City Town Clerk Michael Smart told the Independent Thursday that so far he has received a handful of complaints about people receiving absentee ballots intended for different voters.
He urged anyone receiving the wrong ballot to call his office at (203) 946-8349. Smart promised to get new ballots to people within 24 hours.
“We’re not flawless,” Smart said. “If you think there’s a mistake, give us a call.”
His office has already received over 11,000 requests for absentee ballots for the general election, with thousands more expected. It has so far mailed out some 5,000 ballots to voters, Smart said.
Thanks to an infusion of $93,000 from the state, Smart is temporarily beefing up his staff to handle the flood of applications. So far he has brought on another nine workers this week, with six more expected next week.
The Right Envelopes?
Another voter contacted the Independent with a different concern. It also concerned that interior envelope that arrives with the ballots, and in which voters are supposed to mail back their completed ballots— and whether the voter would be breaking the law by mailing it in.
The envelope this voter received directs voters to sign their names to attest, “under the penalties of false statement,” that they’re voting absentee for a legally approved reason:
“1) my active service in the armed forces; “2) my absence from the town in which I am eligible to vote during all of the hours of voting; “3) my illness or physical disability; “4) the tenets of my religion which forbid secular activity on the day of the primary, election or referendum; or “5) my duties as a primary, election or referendum official.”
No mention of Covid-19 as a reason.
This reporter discovered that his absentee ballot, also received this week, contained the same inner envelope (pictured) with those five listed reasons.
Secretary of the State spokesman Gabe Rosenberg told the Independent that his office had sent all municipal clerks new interior envelopes to use for absentee ballots in the general election. Those new envelopes added an option for concerns about Covid-19. He said his office directed clerks to use the new ones instead of the old versions of the envelopes.
“We spent millions of federal dollars on all of us this stuff [to help local officials prepare for the flood of mail-in ballots], including buying new materials for everyone in the state. It would be nice if they use them,” Rosenberg said. He said his office delivered the new envelopes to New Haven on Sept. 9.
New Haven Clerk Smart said his office was using the old envelopes for the first batch of absentee ballots because the new ones hadn’t arrived yet. He said it is mailing the new ones from here on out.
Wow! Important article. Time for folks of both parties to ward off Trump’s attempts to destroy our democracy. Put on your masks, disinfect yourself with sanitizer on every exposed area, and vote in person.
posted by: owen@large on October 8, 2020 4:32pm
The problems with voting by absentee ballot are going to be huge. Even if only a few thousand votes per state are lost, discounted, or never arrive, either to the voter or to the “ballot box”, the impact could be quite consequential. So far I’ve read about similar, and other kinds of problems in several other states.
posted by: DrJay on October 8, 2020 4:39pm
City clerk and registrar of voters should be civil service, professional positions- not elected ones. Then we could hold the employees to expected standards and fire those who are incompetent. Instead we keep electing people who have to learn how to run an office while on the job. Some do, some don’t. Plus, we can save money. Not every little town needs it’s own registrar of voters (not to mention the 2 every town has now). A professional bureaucracy should do a much better job at a lower cost.
posted by: robn on October 8, 2020 4:52pm
I didn’t get my absentee ballot for the primary and decided to vote in person in the general. That and this is why. Its long time past for the alders to dissolve the ridiculous elected position of Town Clerk and put in a professional.
posted by: LoveNH on October 8, 2020 6:01pm
DrJay nailed it… but it gets even worse. If Working Families gets more votes than the Republicans, we have to fork out for a third registrar’s salary in addition to the mandated Dem and Repub and Town Clerk. As for town clerk, am I correct that Smart has a history with absentee ballot issues? Why YES I am correct: https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/smart_at_center_of_absentee_ballot_scandal/
posted by: 06511 on October 8, 2020 7:38pm
Disgusting. This plays into the worst fearmongering of our president and puts votes in jeopardy. Those responsible should be held accountable. Is there still time to open up more polling places to accommodate those who now feel unsafe casting mail-in ballots?
posted by: jimoco on October 8, 2020 9:11pm
This article just points out the incompetence of the City-Town Clerk’s office in New Haven. We have known that a large increase in absentee ballot requests was coming for more than 6 months at this point and the office is obviously unprepared. Even though I am entitled to vote by absentee ballot, I will show up in person at my local polling place on Election Day since I have absolutely no faith that my potential absentee ballot would everl be properly counted. No matter how long the line, I will follow all CDC guidelines, wait for my turn and proudly cast my vote. Perhaps it is time to remove the current City-Town clerk at the next election in the fall of 2021 for disrupting our most cherished privilege as an American citizen.
A recent article in the NHI reported that the office received a grant of more than $90,000 to help with this process in addition to their regular funding. Apparently these dollars have been and will continue to be wasted.
posted by: owen@large on October 8, 2020 11:24pm
For future reference and discussion: Why not accept ballots over the course of a week or a couple of days? Allow more days so more people are able to vote. Why only one day, Tuesdays? Use Fridays and the weekends too. In any case, the virus has forced our hand by having to vote by absentee ballot or taking your chance by going to your polling place. Most evidence seems to indicate that we are seriously not prepared to handle mass absentee voting. No matter who you vote for, the integrity of this year’s voting process appears to be in serious trouble.
posted by: Paul Garlinghouse on October 9, 2020 9:12am
So many envelopes! I got my absentee ballot and the ballot return envelope has my name on it. That is the white envelope with the barcode printed label with your name, address and party listed on it. That is the outer envelope you are supposed to use to return your ballot. Check your envelope before you send it in. Apparently some number of us were mailed a different voter’s ballot return envelope because the outer envelopes were mismatched. But it didn’t have to be this way. With a slight reformatting of the ballot return envelope your name and address could be made to show through a little glassine window on the outer envelope! No mismatching could ever happen again. As your Green Party candidate for New Haven Registrar of Voters, my mission is to revamp the whole process to bring it into the 21st century. If you don’t want to cast an absentee ballot, you can still choose to vote at your socially distanced polling place, with masks and all precautions, on November 3. If there is any question on that date, you can fill out some paperwork explaining the situation and you should still be allowed to cast a ballot. If you want to request an absentee ballot, do it soon. You can download the absentee ballot application at myvote.ct.gov/absentee. I recommend depositing your absentee ballot application directly in one of the ballot deposit boxes outside 200 Orange Street, in downtown New Haven. These are the same boxes you can use to deposit your actual absentee ballot, but make sure the envelope you are depositing has your name on it and not someone else.
posted by: DawnBli on October 9, 2020 9:19am
Wasn’t there a problem with the Reg. of voters a bunch of years ago? I have voted absentee for years. Going to the polls in the Hill was a nightmare. The last time I went there were over 20 people in the small room just hanging around. Had to go through all kinds of chaos just to vote. Now this? I believe Sergio Rodriquez is running for Reg. of Voters. I think it is time for a change. Does anyone know how and why this happened? Bad timing guys.
posted by: Mike West on October 9, 2020 10:29am
We must vote in person because the Bad Orange Man will try to steal the election. Remember, Trump and the RNC have already hired over 600 lawyers to challenge pretty much everything under the sun after election day. And Laura Bush publicly told Trump to “Never Concede the Election.”
In Connecticut, in person voting during the Primary resulted in exactly zero new cases of Covid, so the Registrars throughout the state have proven themselves quite capable of protecting voters.
posted by: Patricia Kane on October 9, 2020 12:25pm
@DrJay: your recommendations make sense, but the system that makes both the Dem and Rep candidate for ROV automatic winners with only 1 vote will not change the system. It works for the 2 traditional parties, both of which nationally have fewer voters than those who identify as Unaffiliated or Independent. The only new face this year is the Green candidate, Paul Garlinghouse, Esq. Rodriguez is a Dem and part of the system that keeps stumbling along. If you want reforms, then vote Green. At every level.
posted by: PeterSimon on October 9, 2020 2:26pm
How does Trump get pulled into a local issue. “Ward off Trump’s attempt to destroy democracy”: Well, wasn’t the mail balloting a campaign started and protected by the “other side”, thinking that it would be to their advantage? “plays into the worst fear mongering of our president” Isn’t he a business man trained to see weaknesses in systems? Who would have honestly thought that the same number of people doing this job in government for the past so many years would be able to perform under this incredible increase in applications and mail ballots. “open up more places for people who feel unsafe casting mail in ballots” Aren’t the same number of places open? Wasn’t mail in voting promoted as being safe? when did mail in become unsafe? “Vote in person because bad orange man will try to steal election, Laura Bush telling Trump to never concede election” Like the Trumps and the Bushes even talk to each other, BTW it wasn’t Laura it was Hillary Clinton telling Biden not to concede and the Democrats have the same number of lawyers as the republicans to fight each other, after the results are in. This will never end! Wait till after the election, then the real fireworks start!
posted by: Dominic Rapini on October 9, 2020 2:46pm
Under the ‘Funny but Sad’ category. The victims in this article spend more time blaming or insulting the President rather than acknowledge the real issue. Rushing into mail in voting without proper infrastructure and training was a recipe for disaster and a Democrat initiative. Coupled with the fact that New Haven is notorious for problems with the voting process. Either it’s wet ballots or poorly executed Absentee Ballots! .
Do the NHI readers know that there over 25,000 inactive voters in New Haven? People who have not voted in two Federal elections. Including 2016 when EVERYBODY voted. These people are dead, gone, or duplicated. New Haven cannot even maintain a proper voter roll !!
The New Haven clerk and registrars office cannot do their job and are failing now.
Once again, this is an issue with Democrats leading and not leading well, leave Republicans out of the blame game.
Dominic
posted by: Carl Goldfield on October 9, 2020 5:06pm
I applied for an absentee ballot but I decided a few weeks ago to vote in person.
My thinking changed as Trump continued to undercut confidence in the integrity of mail-in voting. The only manner in which to counter his attack is to beat him with significant numbers on the machines. I decided that voting in person with everyone appropriately distanced and masked was relatively low risk. Hell, if I can go the grocery store to pick up a quart of milk I can take an equivalent risk to have an unrebuttable vote.
I felt badly when I changed my mind because I imagined someone at the Town Clerk’s office would have put in work for me for nothing. Now I don’t feel so bad as that office doesn’t seem to be able to handle the task and this story plays straight into Trump’s hand.
Unless you are completely enfeebled or out of town go vote in person at the polls!
posted by: Heather C. on October 9, 2020 6:35pm
NHI-Paul - I didn’t check my inner and outer envelope for the correct name, how can we follow up on our ballots to make sure they weren’t rejected for “discrepancies” like this and unreadable signatures, etc? I would like to know if our ballots get rejected, because then I will vote in person.
posted by: Thomas Alfred Paine on October 10, 2020 12:37am
After mailing in our absentee ballots, can we check with voter registrar or town clerk offices to verify that the ballots have been received? Can this be done online. I photographed my outer envelop to keep a record of my assigned number. WE ALL HAVE TO WORK TOGETHER TO SPREAD THIS NEWS TO ADVISE PEOPLE TO CLOSELY EXAMINE THEIR ABSENTEE BALLOTS TO MAKE SURE THEY BELONG TO TGE RIGHT INDIVIDUALS. At this point, the we’re-only-human excuse from the town clerk is unacceptable. We all knew that there would be an unprecedented demand for ABSENTEE balloons. There should have been a plan, a strategy in place months ago to get this right for New Haven. We can’t account for the other 168 CT towns. Michael Smart and the registrar of voters had ONE JOB of no,mental importance, and should have made sure everything was perfect. Democracy is simple. It’s not rocket science. It’s not brain surgery. It’s making sure that every voter gets a ballot, THE RIGHT BALLOT, whether it is in person voting or mail in voting! This is a disgrace. This is an outrage. This is unacceptable that in the 21st century USA with all of its technological advantages we have these kinds of ballot issues! Get this right if you have to work 24 hours daily for the next week. Get it right! What was done with the state funds provided to prevent such nonsense? The people of New Haven deserve better service from our election officials than this! Get this thing corrected, and restore the people’s confidence in their voting system. There’s too much at stake in this election to mess up now!
posted by: Paul Garlinghouse on October 10, 2020 9:38am
The city clerk has promised to fix the problem, so if you have concerns about getting a ballot return envelope with the wrong name, contact them. The stickers are bar coded, so if you sent in a ballot already, they should be able to confirm that they received your ballot. I expect more statements about this will be coming out next week from the clerk. As for the yellow envelope that you are supposed to sign affirming that you are eligible to vote and the reason you are voting absentee, it is true that they used the old envelopes from 2019. Those envelopes do not include COVID19 as a reason for voting absentee. Some voters are concerned they would be making a false statement by signing this envelope. This is easy to fix. Just write in “COVID19” as the reason you are voting absentee. Then you are signing a truthful statement and no need to worry. Going forward, we all have a right to expect better planning and better design of our voting system for the 21st century. In the meantime, even if you got an absentee ballot you can still vote in person if you choose. You just cannot do both! I would like to hear a clear statement from Michael Smart, and soon, about what voters should do if someone else got their absentee ballot serially-numbered barcoded envelope by mistake and are worried they might not be able to vote.
posted by: Fact Finder on October 10, 2020 10:21am
The ever changing joke consistently has the same punch line, “New Haven”.
The people involved in this in New Haven and throughout the country should either be fired for incompetence or arrested for fraud.
We’re worried about Trump? He doesn’t need to when the doors on the other side make his case for him. Disappointed again in New Haven, but not at all surprised.
posted by: Username06443 on October 10, 2020 12:47pm
@Heather C: At the risk of being accused of a personal attack (which this is not), may I respectfully opine that the submission of an absentee ballot should carry with it a careful read of any and all print on the document(s) by the voter to ensure that it is an accurate account of your vote. It seems that many people in the article have done just that and found fatal errors that caused them to stop proceeding with their vote in this manner. That responsibility is yours and yours alone. As much as I respect the knowledge of Mr. Bass, your question would seem to be best directed to City Town Clerk Michael Smart, who is mentioned prominently in the article. You also stated if your ballot gets rejected, you then will vote in person. Not sure then which of the 5 (or 6 if COVID was included) approved reasons you invoked for the absentee ballot is now not applicable.
posted by: Heather C. on October 12, 2020 2:21pm
Username06443- yes, you’re right, I should have read the enclosed envelopes inside more carefully instead of just the mailer envelope, instructions and ballot. I am at extremely high risk for co-morbidity if I catch COVID-19. So if I vote in person and catch it, I would most likely not survive. My polling place has no real ventilation, and is likely to have lots of people crowding together to wait in line to vote, and people without masks, and shared pens and poll workers handling my drivers license. So due to COVID and my medical conditions I have opted to vote by mail, so as not to risk my life unnecessarily. However, if for some reason my ballot was rejected, I would like to know so I could vote in person, because I am willing to risk my life, if there is no other way, to elect the person that I feel best represents my future, and the future of my loved ones. I strongly feel that this election is more important to the future of our country than any other election in my lifetime, and I want my vote to count.
posted by: Username06443 on October 12, 2020 4:30pm
Heather C: I sincerely hope that your ballot is accepted with your vote as intended given your concern for your health due to COVID-19. I also trust Mr. Smart should be able to answer that for you. Your willingness to vote in person despite your sense that it could be life-threatening is an example for all that the right to vote is not to be taken lightly and should at all costs be exercised. Hoping you stay healthy either way.
Stephen Wizner thought he got his long-awaited chance Thursday to cast an absentee ballot for Joe Biden — until he looked at the envelope he was about to mail.
That’s when Wizner noticed that that envelope identified the ballot as coming from a different voter, from a different neighborhood: one Gregory Alain Huber.
Over in the Prospect Hill neighborhood, Gregory Alain Huber (pictured) returned home from a bike ride with his family Thursday afternoon and opened the absentee ballot that had arrived at his home.
Vebell (pictured) hasn’t yet received a ballot in the mail. She’s eager to get it. The day she received the application for the ballot, she walked to the government office building at 200 Orange St. to turn it in. This week she attended a Dwight Community Management Team meeting, at which she pressed a local elections official about when she’d receive the actual ballot.
City Town Clerk Michael Smart told the Independent Thursday that so far he has received a handful of complaints about people receiving absentee ballots intended for different voters.
Another voter contacted the Independent with a different concern. It also concerned that interior envelope that arrives with the ballots, and in which voters are supposed to mail back their completed ballots— and whether the voter would be breaking the law by mailing it in.