Kaley Pillinger, one of the confused students, receives her sticker after finally arriving at the right location.
Confusion over even-year polling locations sent some Yalies to the wrong voting stations Tuesday.
The confusion concerned Yale students, who usually vote in Ward 22 at Wexler Grant School and Ward 1 at Ives Main Library, at least on odd-number years. Ward 22 includes Morse, Stiles, Franklin, Murray, Silliman, and Timothy Dwight, while Ward 1 includes Old Campus, Hopper, Saybrook, Berkeley, Trumbull, Branford, Jonathan Edwards, Davenport, and Pierson.
On even-number years, when state offices but not local municipal offices are on the ballot, some of Ward 22’s voters don’t vote at the Ward 22 voting station. That’s because, thanks to gerrymandering, New Haven has such a confusing electoral map: State legislative districts don’t align with municipal ward boundaries. Some of Ward 22’s voters are in the 10th State Senate District, some in the 11th.
A similar Senate split in Ward 1 sends some, but not other, students to the Hall of Records (ward 7 polling place) instead of the library on even-number years.
So some students showing up at Wexler Grant found out they needed to go elsewhere Tuesday — namely, the Ward 1 polling station at the main public library branch on Elm Street. The same happened with students from the Jonathan Edwards residential college.
The problem stemmed from the fact that the city government website offers people a chart of 2020 polling “districts” that are in fact the municipal ward polling places. It doesn’t inform voters that those locations don’t work for all voters in even-numbered years. It turns out that the sure way to find out where to vote is to visit this page of the secretary of the state’s website. You put in your name and address, and the correct location pops up.
Ward 22 Alder Jeanette Morrison said she began dealing with voters’ confusion Monday night, and has been helping people figure out where to vote Tuesday. Morrison said to think of the ward’s State Senate district divider as an “L” formed by Prospect and Grove streets. Voters on one side, in colleges like Morse and Stiles, go to Wexler Grant as usual, while Silliman and Dwight voters head to the library. But again, check the secretary of the state website to make sure.
“We’ve had some confused voters,” said Danny Li, a Yale junior who served Tuesday as a poll worker at the main public library branch. While he couldn’t estimate how many students came in with questions, at least 10 had come in incorrectly since that morning.
A campus organization called Yale Votes appeared to be the primary source of misinformation on campus. It gave the incorrect Ward 22 where-to-vote information that was distributed by residential college heads to students. The incorrect information was spread through both student and official channels. Yale Votes has a “close working relationship with the Dean’s office,” said Jonathan Schwartz of Yale Votes. Other administrators also sent out the inaccurate information.
“We’re just telling students to use the state’s website,” said Schwartz. “We found out about this error late last night, and it’s taken time to track discrepancies.” Yale Votes does not have a final list of where students in residential colleges should be voting, he said.
Other organizations like Yale College Democrats and Yale College Council also sent out correction email this morning. New Haven Votes also tweeted about the confusion, telling voters to check the state’s website.
For students who did use the state’s website, there was still confusion. They received two possible polling locations: one labeled state, and another labeled local. And showed up at the wrong place in some cases.
“I wasn’t sure which one to go to,” said Nadja Umlauf, a junior at Yale College. Umlauf lives on Old Campus, part of Ward 1. She was given two possible voting locations –- the Hall of Records, and the main public library. The latter was listed on the City Registrar’s website, so she didn’t know which one was correct. Umlauf ultimately referred to an email from Yale College Democrats, which told her to go to the state location.
At the Hall of Records, one visibly angry Yale student said she “assumed I was allowed to go to either [polling site].” She went online, she said, and found two different polling places. How was she supposed to know which one to go to?
The assistant voting registrar present said she “understood the confusion,” and that the Yale student could file a complaint with City Clerk Michael Smart.
“So I can’t vote here?” asked the student (who declined to give her name). The answer was no.
When asked for comment, Democratic Registrar Shannel Evans told the Independent the “information online was correct.”
“It was difficult to explain and could not find a way to make it more simple,” Evans said.” She repeated that voters should verify their polling places through the state’s database.
As usual, the Yale alder is too busy passing meaningless resolutions against war with Iran and "Peace Dividend" non-binding resolutions rather than alerting his classmates where to vote. And Evans will have "no comment" as usual yet again - because even though her name appears on the ballot she is shoe-in because we can't get rid of her by law. If she worked in the private sector she would be long gone.
Having said that, earlier this morning, I checked the website to see if my absentee ballot had been counted. Needless to say, it had not, even though I mailed it three weeks ago. My family member's ballots all have been received and counted in other municipalities in CT. So, are they just slow? Why isn't my vote counted yet?? Doesn't New Haven have like three Registrar's???
They are paid to essentially ensure ONE DAY OF THE YEAR RUNS SEAMLESSLY and I would call it a "joke" were the stakes not so high. Evans should resign. She messes up again and again and again and again.
"Don't rely on the city government website to figure out where to vote. Period."
Then what the heck does she get paid by taxpayers to do but screw up? SHAME ON EVANS YET AGAIN. Sabin is a close second.