Two Dozen Newtown Poll Workers Honored

NEW BRITAIN — Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz honored 970 Election Day poll workers with five or more years of experience with Public Service Awards in a ceremony December 19, at Central Connecticut State University. The ceremony honored those poll workers who reside in the Fifth Congressional District, including 24 who reside in Newtown.

“You, our election workers, are the guardians of our Democratic process. Every Election Day you are called upon to preserve and protect these rights, and to continue to make them meaningful by running good elections,” Secretary Bysiewicz told the honored recipients. “You really are the ones at the front line of our Democracy every year. Our elections in Connecticut have always been well-run, and for years and years have stood as a symbol of integrity that the entire country can admire. This comes in large part thanks to all of you.”

Poll workers honored at the ceremony included people who volunteer each year to work as Election Day moderators, checkers, machine tenders, machine mechanics, or perform other important roles, Secretary Bysiewicz said.

“I want to give special thanks to those poll workers from Newtown, whom this year had to be trained and prepared to use new optical scan voting machines in place of the lever machines. Newtown was one of the 25 towns from throughout Connecticut which volunteered to begin use the paper ballot-based optical scan machines this year instead of in 2007, and thanks to the hard work from these poll workers and others from Newtown, the machines performed very well this year,” Secretary Bysiewicz added.

The Office of the Secretary of the State has presented Public Service Awards by congressional district to many different groups over the past seven years, including professional firefighters, volunteer firefighters, volunteer emergency service workers, municipal and community volunteers, youth volunteers, and volunteer coaches and assistant coaches. To date, more than 14,600 have been honored by the Office of the Secretary of the State for their public service.

“Serving your community is what America is all about. And while you never ask to be thanked, our office finds it appropriate to say thank you for your commitment to public service,” Secretary Bysiewicz said. “That is why we have presented these Public Service Awards to so many community volunteers and public servants over the years, and I hope, in a small way, these awards today let you know how much we appreciate all that you do for us.”

The honorees from Newtown are: Marilyn Alexander, April Arnold, John Aurelia, Joseph E. Borst, Pat Denlinger, Natalie Gifford, Joan Gilbertie, Rosemarie Gollenberg, George Gollenberg, Margaret Hogenauer, Janet Hovious, Barbara Johnson, Charlotte Kalley, Gloria Lafrancesca, Nancy Larin, Maureen McCarthy, Olga Paproski, Cynthia Scheibel, Richard Simon, Joyce Staudinger, Eleanor Sturges, Jean Swanhall, Lorraine Vanderwende, and Betty Warner.