Voting In Connecticut

To be eligible to vote in Connecticut you must be:

• A U.S. citizen
• A resident of a Connecticut town
• At least 18 years old by Election Day
• Completed with confinement and parole if previously convicted of a felony and have had your voting rights restored

You are required to show identification when registering to vote in person. Acceptable identification includes anything with a name and address: a Connecticut driver's license, a utility bill, or even a checkbook. If you register by mail, you must provide your Connecticut driver's license or the last four digits of your Social Security number on the voter registration form, which will be confirmed by the state's centralized voter registration system. This will avoid additional ID requirements for first-time voters in federal elections. First-time voters who register by mail in a federal election are subject to additional requirements.

You must either show identification or sign a one line affidavit at the polling place if you have not provided proper identification when registering. A photo ID is not required. Acceptable forms of ID at the polling place are:

• A Social Security card
• Any other preprinted form of identification that shows your name and address, name and signature, or name and photograph.

If you do not have identification, the affidavit form requires your name, residential address, date of birth, and signature. The affidavit states, under penalty of false statement, that you are the one whose name appears on the official checklist.

First time voters who registered to vote by mail and did not provide acceptable ID at registration must show identification at the polls or with their absentee ballots. Acceptable forms of identification include a copy of a current and valid photo ID or a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or government document that shows your name and address. If you are a first time voter, you will be required to present identification and may not use the secretary of state's affidavit in lieu of acceptable ID.

The registration deadline by mail is 14 days before an election . The in-person registration deadline for a primary election is noon the day before the primary. The in-person general election deadline to register is 7 days before general election.

People who become US citizens or turn 18 after the in-person registration deadline may register in-person by noon on Election Day, as long as they show proof of these circumstances to their registrars office.

To verify your voter registration status, please contact your registrars office.

You may vote absentee beginning 31 days before an election, 21 days before a primary, 19 days before a referendum. To request an absentee ballot, you can download an absentee ballot request form. You may also call, e-mail, write or apply in person at your town clerk's office. When the application is completed, it must be returned to your town clerk's office, which will then issue you the absentee ballot and required enclosure envelopes. The sealed marked ballot and signed outer envelope must reach the town clerk's office before the close of the polls on Election Day.

You may vote by absentee ballot if you expect to be unable to appear at your polling place during the hours of voting due to one the following reasons:

• You will be absent from town during all the hours of voting
• Illness
• Physical disability
• Religion tenets that forbid secular (non-religious) activity on Election Day
• Your required performance of duties as a primary, referendum, or election official at a polling place other than your own during all the hours on Election Day

Overseas citizens and U.S. military personnel can register to vote and request an absentee ballot at the Overseas Vote Foundation.

Early voting is not available.

The next statewide election will be held Tuesday, August 10, 2010 (Monday, August 9, 2010: In-person Registration Deadline). The following elections are scheduled to take place in 2010:

Please check with your local registrars office for information on local elections.

In order to be a poll worker in Connecticut:

• You must be registered to vote in Connecticut
• You must be at least 18 years of age
• You will be entitled to compensation
• Political affiliation generally required
• You must be a resident of the town that you apply
• You must complete required training
• Students with residency in the town who are 16 years or older may work with written permission from a parent or guardian

To sign up, contact your local registrars office.

Polling places will be open from 6:00 am to 8:00 pm on Election Day.

Time off to vote is subject to the employer. Connecticut law does not require employers to grant time off to vote for employees.

You can find your polling place here.

Provisional ballots are issued in the following situations:

• You claim to be an elector in a jurisdiction, but you are not on the official voter list
• The registrars determines that you cannot be restored or transferred from another polling place
• A polling district moderator decides that you may not vote in the primary or election
• You fail to provide appropriate ID

If you are requesting a provisional ballot, you should request it from your polling district in which you reside. Registrars of voters will forthwith verify the information contained with each provisional ballot to determine whether you are eligible to vote and note their decision on the outer envelope containing the ballot. If they can determine that you should have been on the official voting list and your vote is eligible, they will open and count the vote. Connecticut does not offer a provisional ballot in elections where there is no federal office on the ballot.

The voting system used in Connecticut is the optical scan.

Optical Scan: With this system, you will receive a card or sheet of paper, which you take over to a private table or booth. The card has the names of the various candidates and ballot measures printed on it. With a pen or pencil you fill in a little box or circle or the space between two arrows. When you are finished filling out all the cards, you may bring the cards over to a ballot box, where poll workers will show you how to put the cards in the box. Or in some places, you may feed the completed cards or papers into a computer device that checks your card or paper right there at the polling place to make sure you have voted the way you want to and counts the votes.

Information on local, state and federal candidates and ballot measures is available here.

All polling places must be accessible. If you require assistance to vote by reason of blindness, disability, or inability to write or to read the ballot, assistance may be given by a person of your choice. This person may accompany you into the voting booth. This can be a person of your choosing but cannot be:

• Your employer
• An agent of such employer
• An officer or agent of your union

A disabled person may, at any time, request a paper ballot for electors with disabilities.

For information on federal campaign contributions, please visit Open Secrets.

For information on state campaign contributions, please visit your state's resource.