You asked for a description of what happens at polling places when a potential voter enters. You asked whether there are restrictions on communications between the moderators and voters and how the voter’s name is announced.

SUMMARY

State statutes prescribe the process for voting and the nature of activities that are permitted in and near polling places. When a voter enters the polling place, he announces his address and name and presents identification or signs a statement attesting to his identity. Unless challenged by a polling place official, the voter moves to the area where the voting machines are located and, following the instructions of the machine tender, enters the machine booth and casts his vote. Once the person has voted, he must exit the booth and leave the room. There are no statutes or regulations that specifically restrict what the moderator and a voter can say to one another, but the moderator has the authority to maintain order in the polling place and voters are not permitted to interfere with the voting process.

Certain specified activities are prohibited in and near polling places. On election day or when there is a primary or a vote on a referendum question, no one (with a few specified exceptions) can solicit support for

or opposition to a candidate or a question, loiter, peddle, or offer any material within 75 feet of the polling place. The moderator at each polling place has the authority to keep order.

A Voter’s Bill of Rights, enacted in 2002, lists the rights every registered voter can expect.

PROCESS OF VOTING

When a voter enters the polling place, he must announce his street address and name in a voice loud and clear enough that the election officials can hear him. He then either presents proof of his identity or signs a statement that he is the person whose name is on the official checklist if he has no ID. At that point, the checkers mark his name on the checklist and he can proceed to cast his vote. Once the voter votes, he must leave the polling place. (CGS § 9-261)

PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES

No one can be within 75 feet of the entrance to the polling place or in any hallway or other approach to it in order to solicit support for or opposition to a candidate (himself or another) or a ballot question, loiter, peddle, or offer advertising material or circulars. The only exceptions to the restriction are for (1) parent-teacher groups that hold bake sales or other fund raising activities at a school used as a polling place, (2) registrars of voters who direct the distribution of “I Voted Today” stickers, (3) nonpartisan activities that the registrars have jointly approved and are conducted in another room, (4) representatives of the news media who observe the election, (5) small groups of supervised students in grades 4 to 12 who observe the election between noon and 3 p. m. , or (6) children whose parent or guardian is voting (CGS § 9-236). The law also permits a town to approve the use of a spare voting machine or ballot box for supervised students to use inside a polling place or in an adjacent room for educational purposes (CGS § 9-236a).

MODERATOR’S AUTHORITY TO MAINTAIN ORDER

The moderator is the chief official at his polling place and is responsible for keeping order. The moderator has the authority to handle any disorder and evict anyone who interferes with orderly voting or order the arrest or removal by a police officer or constable of anyone who refuses to submit to that authority. But no offender can be deprived of his right to vote any longer that he refuses to conform to proper order. (CGS §§ 9-230 and 9-236)

VOTER’S BILL OF RIGHTS

The secretary of the state must provide a poster at every polling place that informs voters that they have the right to:

1. inspect a sample ballot,

2. receive instruction on how to operate voting equipment,

3. cast a ballot if they are in line to vote when the polls close,

4. ask for and receive assistance,

5. vote free from coercion or intimidation, and

6. cast a ballot using equipment that accurately counts all votes.

The poster must be printed and assistance given in a language other than English where federal and state law requires ballots to be available in another language (PA 02-83, codified at CGS § 9-236b).

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