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11/06/2024 08:30 AMIn every election year, there is not only a lot of attention directed toward the people who are running for office, but also toward the people who will participate in the democratic process by exercising their constitutional right to vote. Whether it’s the race for mayor, first selectman, or state senator, the election season is always bound to be a busy time of year for everyone involved in this process.
However, while many of us may be thinking about who will ultimately represent our communities in office, we might not be considering the people who are there to ensure that the democratic process is being effectively administered from beginning to end. One of these people is Alberta Vitale, who is one of the registrars of voters in East Haven.
Alberta first became one of East Haven’s two registrars in 2021, fulfilling the role after its previous longtime occupant, Donna Norman, had passed away that year.
“I had been for about six months after she fell ill, so she wasn't actually working, and I knew that endorsement would come up, and I had intended to take the endorsement if the party so wanted me to,” says Alberta.
Alberta says the endorsement was “absolutely” something which she wanted to accept.
“I really enjoy the election law aspect of being a registrar and serving the electors,” says Alberta. “I didn't have any second thoughts on taking the endorsement.”
When it came time to accept the nomination, Alberta was “very interested in compliance issues” within the office, considering that she is an attorney who has a “very strong interest in the law and administering it in a different way” than she does in practice.
Alberta says the importance of the role is what intrigued her about becoming a registrar. In that role, Alberta facilitates and serves the people of East Haven to exercise their right to vote and participate in democracy. Whether that vote be for municipal officials, state and Congressional representatives, or President of the United States, Alberta knows that overseeing the process which administers the right to vote is a critical responsibility.
“I think that serving the electors in East Haven is a really important job. Administering people’s constitutional rights to vote is a really important job, so I really wanted to do it,” Alberta says. “I had been a longtime poll worker. I pretty much have served in every capacity as a poll worker, that is over the probably 10 years prior to me becoming registrar.”
The capacities to which Alberta is referring are the various jobs held by townspeople on Election Day. This includes the election moderators who are in charge of every poll, assistant registrars in polling places, and the people working in absentee ballot rooms—all roles which Alberta has assumed.
Early voting by absentee ballot has become a far more common method of voting throughout the past four years. Alberta has seen the impact of that since it started happening more regularly during the pandemic-era 2020 election season.
“I did work absentee ballots in 2020, and the volume was great,” she says. “We knew the volume was large, so we moved the absentee ballot counting from Town Hall, where we normally do it, to our Senior Center. I can’t remember the number of ballots that we processed that day, but it was a much greater volume than we would have had people not been influenced by the pandemic and not wanting to go out to their polling places.”
Work at the polling places means long hours starting as early as 5 a.m. Questions about voting may come in that early, says Alberta, while any issues which may arise at a polling place somewhere in town would need to be immediately addressed before the initial wave of voters arrives. Ultimately, because of the long hours, there is a lot of support needed by the Registrar’s Office, especially in an election such as this one.
“The busiest election days are always the presidential election because we expect and have over a 90% turnout for those elections,” she says. “To process that number of voters in a polling place means that there's pretty much a steady flow of people coming out to vote.”
This marks a great contrast to the turnout for municipal or state elections, when turnouts are between 30 to 50%, according to Alberta.
In regard to the work done by pollsters in presidential elections, Alberta says that, “I am for their wanting to support our office because my day is usually fairly the same. But for them, they do a lot more work on a 90% turnout election than a 30 to 50.”
Regardless of the turnout, Alberta says that she is “really excited” to see people show up to the polls and exercise their constitutional right to cast their ballot. Alberta is looking forward to meeting East Haven’s voters and ensuring that their voices are heard on Election Day—an experience for which she feels tremendously grateful.
“I think it’s really important to have somebody focused in the Registrar's Office on the rights of our electors and our voters,” says Alberta. “I really enjoy making sure that the elections are run well and working with the staff and the Registrar's Office to make sure that we give the residents of East Haven the best elections that we possibly can.”