#MiddleburyCT #AbsenteeVoting #EarlyVoting
By MARJORIE NEEDHAM
Connecticut voters needing absentee ballots for the November 5, 2024, general election can obtain an absentee ballot starting Friday, October 4. Those wishing to vote early, as voters did for the first time for the presidential preference primaries in April 2024, can do so starting Monday, October 21.
For the November 5 election, absentee voting requires one of six excuses listed on the application that prevent the applicant from voting in person the day of the election. They are: active service in the military, absence from the town in which you are eligible to vote, sickness, religious tenets that forbid secular activity on the day of the election, duties as an election official at a polling place other than your own during all of the hours of voting, or physical disability.
Absentee voters may obtain an application in person in their town clerk’s office (Middlebury’s is in Town Hall), online at the Connecticut Absentee Ballot Request Portal, tinyurl.com/yf42j6x5 or by downloading the application at tinyurl.com/4rxnpk3h. Middlebury Town Clerk Brigitte Bessette said applications filled out online through the Absentee Ballot Request Portal are sent to the town clerk’s office the following day, and the town clerk’s office then mails out an absentee ballot. Find a detailed explanation of the absentee ballot procedure on a secretary of the state video, vimeo.com/896641848?share=copy. The detailed explanation by Windham Town Clerk Patty Spruance starts at 9 minutes.
Please note a constitutional amendment question on the November 5 ballot removes the requirement to have one of six excuses to obtain an absentee ballot. If the amendment passes, it would “allow each voter to vote by absentee ballot.”
Early voting dates will be October 21 to 31 and November 1 to 3. Voting hours will be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., except for October 29 and 31, when the voting hours will be 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The polling location for early voting for Middlebury voters will be in Room 4 on the lower level of Shepardson Community Building at 1172 Whittemore Road in Middlebury.
Those who wish to vote early must be registered voters. However, early voting allows same day registration, so you may register to vote in person every day of early voting at the early voting locations. Those already registered will need to confirm their registrations. Registered voters are given a ballot and an envelope for the completed ballot. Completed ballots are stored in a secure location at the end of each day of the early voting period and counted on election day.
