I’m writing to thank State Senator Christine Cohen (D-12) and state representatives Sean Scanlon (D-98) and Vincent Candelora (R-86) for their support of expanding absentee ballot access to eligible voters in Connecticut. Guilford can be proud of our 61 percent voter participation in our November municipal elections, the highest in the state! Now, we have our budget referendum vote coming up on Tuesday, April 12. Absentee ballots will be available starting on April 6—not much time, but if your readers expect to be out of town or unable to get to the polling place on April 12, they should consider going to the Town Clerk’s Office to get an absentee ballot.

Our town budget supports so many services that we take for granted. Funding our police, firefighters, and EMS services providing us with the exemplary services we have all come to rely on. We need roads to be well maintained and the snow to be cleared as quickly as possible so that our emergency services and all of us are able to get around our roads safely.

We have all experienced rising prices over the last year, and more so during the pandemic. All of these services have increased in cost. I’m not sure who among us is ready to deny fully paying for our emergency services, or deny offering a warm, welcoming, and safe community space to our neighbors when temperatures drop and the electricity fails.

I encourage your readers to vote every possible chance they get. Our democracy depends on them. I also encourage them to vote in support of our town budget on April 12. All our lives may depend on a well-trained EMS staff being able to arrive swiftly in an emergency. I’ll be supporting this and I hope that your readers will join me.

Carol Rizzolo

Guilford