Inessentials

I voted.

I thought I had researched all the referendums and local elections that would be on my ballot, so I froze up when I saw “Registrar of Voters” listed among the elections. There were at least four or five names listed. How did I not know this would be on there? Who were these people? I considered walking away then and there to go look up info on these people and then come back to vote later in the day and better informed. By then I was almost inside the door, so I decided to vote then. (19 minutes total for me from getting in line to walking out.) The big question for me then became, should I vote for New Haven’s Registrar of Voters or leave that slot blank?

I filled in the ovals for Referendum 1, Referendum 2, President, Congress, state offices … and then I didn’t know. Leave it blank? The only information I had was the candidates’ gender (inferred from the names) and their party affiliation. Gender seemed irrelevant, and I don’t like to vote based solely on party affiliation, but in the absence of other evidence could I vote for someone simply because of their political party? After standing there for about 30-60 seconds, I decided to vote for a third party candidate, promising myself I would research the candidates immediately afterwards.

Here’s what I discovered. In Connecticut, every municipality is required by law to have two Registrars of Voters, one for each of the two major political parties. A third party candidate can win a position by coming in first or second in voting. The official wording from the state’s website:

If third-party candidates also listed for registrar, in addition to the Republican and Democratic nominees, and third party candidate receives the highest or second highest vote total, and does not belong to either major party, then that candidate, and also the Republican and Democratic nominees, are elected Registrars of Voters. However, if the major-party nominees run first and second in the vote totals, then they are elected.

Basically, if someone besides a Republican or a Democrat takes first or second, then there will be a third Registrar of Voters. The annual salary of a Registrar is $52,000. In New Haven, it would cost less than $.50 per person.

Here’s one take on why a third Registrar might be a good thing: although there doesn’t seem to be any problems with the current balloting system, a third Registrar would do more to increase voter registration. That seems good to me, so I don’t regret voting for that third party candidate, although I do regret not being prepared going in.