The ballot box sits ready in the town office for the November 5th election

BETHEL — With the approach of the 2024 election, the Bethel town office has been seeing a rise in requests for absentee ballots. “We’re going to well surpass the number of absentee ballots from last November” said Jessica Grover, town clerk and registrar of voters. Since opening up ballot requests, there has been a “steady influx or stream of people coming in to absentee vote or request an absentee ballot.”

With the increase in absentee ballots, Grover made a choice this year to process absentee ballots on Nov. 2, rather than processing them with the in person votes on the 5th. This is a strategy that has been implemented by other towns before, to ease the workload on the actual election day.

Grover clarified, “They are only counted that day. They are not tallied up and the results are not notified until the day of the election.” As well, when it comes to processing the votes, she said “We use the same rules and process that we would use on Election Day so that it’s done under the same rules and auspices as it would be on the 5th.” She explained that the decision was made due to an expected high load of work on Election Day.

“This being presidential and this being a close presidential, is bringing a lot of people in, I’m assuming” said Grover. “There’s a lot of moving pieces, and making sure that you’re providing the best election that you can for the citizens of Bethel.” The absentee ballots will be processed using the same machine used for the in-person ballots, and will be counted in the same manner. Absentee ballots are available for request until the end of the business day on Oct. 31, and can be returned as late as 8 p.m. on the day of the election itself.

Another new update is that Tracy Walker, the deputy registrar of voters, will not be participating in ballot counting this year. Grover explained that, “Her son is on the ballot this time, so she will not be helping with elections because she is too close to a candidate.” Her position will instead be filled by Christy Aguilar.