Municipal law attorney Richard Roberts discussed absentee ballots and mail-in voting with reporter Mike Savino on WFSB Channel 3 Eyewitness News’ Face the State program ahead of the November 2020 general election. The transcript is below, and the interview may be watched in full at WFSB Channel 3’s website.
Mike Savino: Connecticut and other states around the country are expanding absentee and mail-in voting options, viewed as safe alternatives to voting in person in the pandemic. And there are real concerns the election outcomes will be challenged because of their use. Here to talk about that, and how the timing of the final results could be impacted, is attorney Richard Roberts with the firm Halloran Sage. Rich, thanks for joining me.
Attorney Richard Roberts: My pleasure.
Mike: Rich, we saw in the August primary that absentee ballots accounted for more than 50% of the votes cast. As you talk with some of the municipalities that you work with, what are they expecting in November’s general election?
Rich: I think they’re expecting the absentee ballots to be probably about the same as was the case in the primary. Speaking with one town clerk earlier today, they said they’ve already received basically applications for 10% of the voters to receive absentee ballots already, and it’s only been a week or so.
Mike: I think the average person, they watch the news the night of the election and they see the results and they think, that’s it, that’s who the winner is, but of course there’s a whole process to get to the official results. Just quickly run me through that process and some of the key steps before we actually know who the official winner is.
Rich: Well, at least in Connecticut, the way the election canvas is handled, is there are preliminary figures that come from the tabulator of the in-person voting, the people who show up at the polling places and the number that gets printed out of that. It’s likely that there’s going to be a similarly large number that’s generated again on election night from absentee ballots that are run through tabulators during the course of the day by poll workers. So at least in Connecticut, I think the vast bulk of both the in-person and the absentee ballots will be tallied by 10 PM or midnight on Election Day. If there is a substantial volume of election day registration votes, and overwhelming number of absentees that just can’t get processed during the election day, there may be some kind of follow-up, additional figures that get provided over the days after the election. I know that in other states, they have a substantially slower process for counting the mail-in ballots and so forth than we do here in Connecticut. But I think, at least in this state, we should have a pretty good handle of what the outcome is going to be by the time people wake up on the day after the election.
Mike: As we see states rolling out absentee and mail-in voting expansions, there’s also concerns about the results. What kinds of legal challenges could we see and are there increased chances of seeing those as we see an expansion of mail in voting and absentee voting?
Rich: I think the difficulty with absentee voting is not so much that someone will use that as an opportunity to vote twice. The protocols that we have in place in Connecticut are pretty rigorous in terms of making sure that someone who has voted absentee is not also showing up at the polls to vote. However, I think the challenges could come from technical defects in the absentee ballots, or the envelopes, or the process by which they were returned or sorted. Those are probably more likely to be the types of issues that would come up in Connecticut. Did someone sign the outer envelope? Was the ballot put into the right envelope? Was it postmarked by Election Day? Was it in the ballot box in time? Those kind of technical requirements as opposed to someone showing up at the polls after they’ve already mailed in their ballot.
Mike: How do we get out in front of that? In the past we’ve seen public service campaigns to make sure people understand how to use new voting machines, could we see similar things in the next couple of weeks educating people on how to vote absentee?
Rich: I think there will efforts in that regard. I know that some towns have already posted links to various portions of the Secretary of State’s website that show things like how to fill out an absentee ballot properly to make sure that all of the t’s are crossed and the i’s are dotted. You’ve also seen some effort to encourage people to get their ballots back as quickly as possible, particularly if they’re using the mail, just to avoid some kinds of issues that might come up. But there has been and I believe there will be a greater emphasis on explaining to people exactly what the technical steps are to be able vote by absentee so that it gets counted. There’s some requirement that the voters themselves be a little more proactive about making sure they return the application promptly, they fill out the ballot promptly, that they either put it into the ballot box outside their Town Hall or they get it in the mail at least a week before the Election so that they can be confident that it’s received in time.
Mike: Connecticut’s election results may go smoothly but we’re not going to be a contested state in the Presidential election. Do you anticipate with some of the swing states that we could see some legal challenges that could stall how long it takes for us to know who won?
Rich: I think there’s always the possibility that there will be challenges based on idiosyncratic regulations or statutes or procedures, that take place in other states. We all have nightmare memories of the Florida recount in 2000 and I think substantial steps have been made to improve that process since then. But there is such a wide variety of processes that the different states use that there may be a basis for legitimate challenges, or just challenges designed to delay the process potentially, particularly if it turns out that in a particular state or nationally, it’s very close.
Mike: In just 15 seconds, do you think it takes that long this time to find out the results, or do you think we find out a lot sooner?
Rich: I’m hopeful and confident that it won’t drag on as long as it did in 2000. Frankly, I don’t think the public has the tolerance for having this kind of drama go on any longer than it needs to.