WESTFIELD – City residents have two more opportunities to exercise their right to vote as the Oct. 8 primary for state senator is nearly upon us and the Nov. 5 general election follows quickly.
The October/November time frame is also when many residents head south to warmer climes for the winter, but would like to participate in local elections.
Absentee ballots are the solution to being somewhere else and still exercising the right to vote here, but this year that option is much more complicated, not because of the requirements to qualify for absentee voting, but because of the fact that there are actually two elections on Nov. 5. There is a local election in which residents will select a mayor, City Council, School Board members and Municipal Light Board for the next two years, and a second election that day to elect a new state senator to replace Michael Knapik, who resigned his post to assume duties at Westfield State University.
Voters going to the polls on Nov. 5 will have to check in at two tables, vote on two ballots, then check out at two tables. The tabulation computers have been programmed to accept both ballots and record the data.
But the fact that there are two ballots means there have to be two absentee ballots – one for the state senator election and one for the city election – neither of which have been printed yet because of a 10-day waiting period following a preliminary or primary election.
The city conducted a preliminary election on Sept. 24 to decide which candidates will be listed on the general election ballot, meaning that the Nov. 5 ballots will go to the printers this Friday, Oct. 4. The state ballot will not go to the printers before Oct. 18 because of the primary to be held next Tuesday, Oct. 8.
The absentee ballots will be available at the City Clerk’s office in the Westwood Building on North Elm Street after they are printed, but residents who cannot physically be at the polls can file a request to have the absentee ballots sent to them.
“Residents have to fill out an application so we can ensure that the applicant is a registered voter and indicate why they are requesting an absentee ballot. There have to be a legitimate reason why they cannot make it to the polls,” a staff member of that office said Monday. “It could be that they’re going on vacation or going south for the winter, or that they will be in the hospital for a scheduled procedure, or they work a shift during the hours the polls will be open.”
The city opens polls for municipal elections between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., while state law requires that for state and federal elections, the polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. The city plans to adopt the state polling hours because of the dual election.
“It’s very rare to have a double election and separate procedures to get ballots, so we plan to have training sessions for the poll workers,” the staff member said. “We’re also color-coordinating the voting list and ballots. The state usually uses white, so we’ll have the city ballots printed in a different color.”
Absentee ballots have to be returned to the City Clerk’s office by the close of the voting polls on election day. Residents who plan to fill out an absentee ballot can do so in the City Clerk’s office up until noon on the day prior to the general election. No absentee ballots are issued after noon on the day prior to the election.
