Ballots in question in North Stonington due to missing signatures

Hundreds of ballots that were cast in North Stonington in recent weeks may not count after local election officials instructed voters not to sign their names on ballot envelopes, a step that is required during early in-person voting.

North Stonington’s Republican and Democratic Registrars of Voters issued a press release on the town’s website on Saturday afternoon instructing voters who cast a ballot via early in-person voting between Oct. 21 and Oct. 31 to return to their voting location to “correct their ballot.”

“Through October 31, voters were inadvertently misinformed about the need to sign their early voting ballot envelope,” the release said. “As a result, it is believed that ballot envelopes submitted during this period went unsigned by voters, which is required by law.”

The release does not state how many voters in North Stonington failed to sign their ballot envelopes.

But in a phone interview, Connie Berardi, the town’s Democratic Registrar of Voters, said around 1,000 ballots lacked the required signature.

In this year’s election, the ballots in North Stonington include choices for president, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, two legislative seats and the local registrars of voters.

For perspective, a little over 3,000 voters in North Stonington cast a ballot during the last presidential election in 2020.

Berardi referred other questions about the ballot mistakes to the Connecticut Secretary of the State’s office, which is in charge of overseeing the state’s elections.

The Secretary of the State’s office did not immediately respond to questions for this story.

Connecticut’s new early voting law, which lawmakers passed in 2023, clearly states that voters casting a ballot during the 14-day early voting period need to sign the envelope that they receive with their ballot.

It’s unclear how voters will be able to “correct their ballot,” as the town’s release states.

Connecticut does not have a ballot curing process, which allows voters to fix signature issues and other mistakes after their ballot is received.

Sen. Heather Somers, who is running for reelection this year in the state Senate district that includes North Stonington, learned of the ballot errors late Saturday afternoon.

“I’m very upset,” Somers said.

Somers said she was told that any ballot that does not have a signature on the envelope may not be counted, and she said voters are being advised to return to the North Stonington Education Center, the town’s early voting location, to cast a brand new ballot.

With only a couple days remaining before election day, Somers said she is very concerned that some of the impacted voters may not be able to make it back to the polls to cast a new ballot.

“That’s a huge issue for me because people came in good faith to cast those votes,” said Somers, who is the Republican candidate in Senate District 18.

Her concern is that the people who cast those ballots won’t be available on Nov. 3 — the final day of early voting — or on Election Day itself.

“Some people may be out of town. Some people may be in surgery,” Somers said. “They early-voted for a reason.”

The mistake is the second to potentially disenfranchise voters in the 43rd House District of North Stonington and portions of Stonington and Ledyard.

“It’s frustrating,” said Rep. Greg Howard, R-Stonington, who is seeking reelection from the 43rd.

Roughly 519 ballots were previously sequestered in Stonington after officials learned that some voters had received the wrong ballot on Oct. 22, the second day of early voting. Stonington spans the 41st and 43rd House Districts.

The mistake in North Stonington involved each of the 1,100 ballots cast in 13 of the 14 days of early voting, he said.

“Now, you’re talking about 1,600 votes. They are both in places where I win by big numbers,” said Howard, a police officer who was elected in 2020 and reelected in 2022.

If the 1,100 early voters in North Stonington do not return to cast new ballots on Sunday, the last day of early voting, or on Election Day, those ballots will not be counted, Howard said.

Howard said the impact of the single-day, wrong-ballot problem is relatively limited. No one expects the majority of the sequestered ballots from Oct. 22 in Stonington were the wrong ones.

Voters who cast ballots that day have been urged to vote again. If they do, the original ballots, which are sealed in envelopes with the voters’ names, will be discarded. 

The other sequestered ballots will be opened and hand-counted on Election Day, with officials checking to ensure the voter had received the correct ballot.

Only the two House districts are affected, and only one is contested. Rep. Aundre Bumgardner, D-Groton, has no opponent in the 41st of Groton and Stonington. If a vote was cast for the wrong House contest, that vote will not be counted. But the votes cast for the other offices will be tallied.

“I don’t think anybody did anything malicious or on purpose,” Howard said. “I am trying to be reasonable. But at some point, you say, ‘Enough is enough.’”