The views stated here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors of this newspaper.
I received the following in an email from a town resident:
“I wanted to compliment you for doing an outstanding job during Election Day making in-person voters feel safe. I was very pleased to see the amount of safety protocols in place, practiced by staff + voters. I know in speaking w/work colleagues, they expressed concerns that they did not have as many safety measures as Haddam had.”
To be clear, the credit rightly goes to our Registrars of Voters and assistant, Ray Skarsten, Saralyn D’Amato and Diana Cotrell, all of the volunteers who staffed the polling locations or helped in other ways, Scott Brookes and Ann Riebold in the Town Clerk’s office and our resident troopers TFC DeAngelo and Trooper Stanger. They all did an outstanding job to ensure that everything went smoothly on Tuesday.
A record number of absentee ballots, 1573, were counted. (That’s four times as many as are normally received for a presidential election.) Turnout at the polls was also heavy. All told, 86% of our registered voters cast ballots in this election. Outstanding!
I’d like to thank everyone, including voters, for stepping up and ensuring that we were able to complete our most important civic duty.
Robert McGarry
First Selectman, Haddam