Election Day 2007: Newtown Is Poised For The Polls

By John Voket

Newtown residents who plan to exercise their constitutional right to vote next Tuesday, November 6 should ready themselves for an Election Day marathon. Compared to relatively low or nonexistent competition for seats in several past local elections, voters this year will be faced with not only choices between the two major parties in all but one race, but a full complement of petitioning challengers and a write-in candidate as well.

The Registrars of Voters office will have four polling places fully staffed and stocked with paper ballots, felt-tip markers, privacy booths, optical scanning voting machines, and even a direct phone/fax system for those who may require special access due to vision limitations or other disabilities.

Registrars have also reconfigured the check-in process at the polls to minimize waiting time.

Polling places in town will be open November 6 from 6 am to 8 pm. District 1 votes at the Newtown Middle School Gym A at 11 Queen Street; District 2 voters should report to the Reed Intermediate School cafetorium, 3 Trades Lane; Dist 3-1 voters head to Head O’ Meadow School cafetorium on Boggs Hill Road; and Dist 3-2 residents vote at the Middle Gate School Cafeteria on Cold Spring Road.

The town clerk’s office at Edmond Town Hall is open Saturday, November 3 for qualified voters to complete absentee ballots from 9 am to noon. Absentee ballots can also be completed or delivered completed to that office during regular business hours Friday, November 2 and Monday, November 5, and dropped off before 8 pm on Election Day.

Only emergency ballots can be distributed on Election Day, no absentee ballots will be provided. All absentee ballots must be turned in at the town clerk’s office, they will not be accepted at the polling places.

Over the last three editions including today, The Newtown Bee has presented an exhaustive level of information to voters including lengthy profiles and photos of each candidate seeking office, pictures of the ballots for each voting district to help familiarize residents with the candidates’ positioning, hosted a live debate among the four first selectman contenders, and is offering online MP3 audio clips of the entire debate through the newspaper’s website, newtownbee.com.

Voters may choose to cast just one single vote, or choose from among the many candidates from First Selectman and the Board of Selectmen, to the Legislative Council, the Boards of Education and Assessment Appeals, the Planning & Zoning and Police Commission, the Zoning Board of Appeals and its alternates, and the Edmond Town Hall Board of Managers.

While votes may be cast for members of the Board of Finance and Town Clerk, those seven candidates are running unopposed. A special election for a two-year interim seat to fill a vacancy on the school board is also occurring between a nominated Democrat and a write-in challenger.

This election will likely qualify a local political committee for minor party status in future elections. Each of the races involving petitioning challengers organized by the Independent Party of Newtown committee need only a small percentage of the overall votes in each position to elevate those seats to minor party status on the 2009 ballot.

Voting district maps along with a description of the districts, street by street, and a list of polling places appear this week on page A10.