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11/10/2020 03:30 PMAs a recognition for their work in a particularly hard election season, the Town Council voted on Oct. 21 to raise the compensation for the town’s two registrars of voters.
At a virtual Town Council meeting on Oct. 21, the council unanimously voted to raise the registrar’s of voters compensations from $8,457 to $10,000 retroactive to July 1, 2020. The move comes after town reviewed the compensation for registrars in similarly sized towns.
Prior to the raise, the Clinton registrars were making $8,457 while serving a voting population of about 10,000. Old Saybrook and Westbrook pay their registrars $10,000 and $12,000 respectively. Both towns also have smaller voting populations than Clinton.
Speaking at the council meeting, council member Carol Walter said, “You know I’m never one to spend money frivolously but just to bring them into the ballpark they’d have to get [$1,500 or $1,600] more just to bring them to $10,000.”
In Clinton there are two registrars of voters, one Democrat (June Hansen) and one Republican (Wendy McDermott). Both were re-elected to their posts in this year’s election.
As registrars of voters, Hansen and McDermott are responsible for a long list of Election Day duties. These include processing applications from people who register to vote, tabulating election results, and adhering to changing election protocols. Earlier in 2020, Hansen explained that in a typical year the registrars start preparing for elections in September, where they spend time familiarizing themselves with new computer systems, changes to state statutes, and dealing with increased voting registrations. On Election Day, the registrars set up the room where people vote, make sure the machines are working, and then deal with Election Day Registrations.
Hansen attended the virtual council meeting and informed the council of the huge increase the registrars are seeing in voter registrations, likely thanks to a highly charged national election and political atmosphere. Hansen told the council that since July 1 the registrars have processed 671 new registrations and that Clinton now has a voting population of 10,308 people.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the registrars are being asked to do much more. There were an unprecedented number of absentee ballots that needed to be processed. Voting in person this year also looked different due to precautions related to the pandemic. Voters were required to wear masks, observe social distancing, and wait while the machines voting booths are sanitized. All of this was observed by the registrars and the increased voting staff.
In recognition of the extra work going into this year’s election, Walter said after the meeting that it made sense to make sure that Clinton’s registrars deserve the same compensation as other towns.
“I would say that the increase to their salary was long overdue. With the level of responsibility that they are required to bring to the job, threshold be compensated adequately and appropriately. This year has put extraordinary demands on our registrars and it was the right time to bring them up to competitive salary levels,” Walter said.