Community Corner

Power Situation Won't Jeopardize Election Day, Secretary of the State's Office Says

Spokesman says there are no requests anywhere in the state to reschedule; making a change would require a court order.

Rumors have been swirling throughout Connecticut — even in communities that never lost power — that Election Day would be rescheduled from Tuesday, Nov. 8, because of the remaining electricity outages caused by the October snowstorm.

This is not true, according to Av Harris, spokesman for the Secretary of the State's office.

"We have had zero requests from any community to postone" Election Day, Harris said Friday afternoon.

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Harris said the Secretary of the State's office has been in close communication with registrars of voters throughout Connecticut via a series of conference calls.

Additionally, Harris said, because Election Day is part of state law ("the Tuesday after the first Monday of November," according to the statute), to change it would require a court order.

Find out what's happening in Middletownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"If a community wanted to postone, they would have to do it through the courts," Harris said. "A judge would have to look at that."

He said there has never been an instance where an election was not held because of weather-created problems.

"You can run a polling place with no electricity," he said.

If generators and battery packs cannot be used or don't last long enough, Harris said voters can fill out paper ballots. He said the governor has the National Guard and state crews out clearing roads of debris and trees.

He also said that CL&P is aware of all polling locations in communities that are still suffering outages.


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