The short version
Tuesday night, shortly after 8 p.m., Bristol office seekers who have worked for more than a year on their campaigns away from their family and friends, will begin to learn the fruits of their labor.
In Connecticut, because election results must be entered into the Secretary of the State’s Election Management System (EMS) by midnight, moderators at each of the nine-polling stations across the city, begin tallying the votes once the polls close at 8 p.m., according to Bristol’s registrars of voters.
When complete, the tally tapes and tally sheets and other required forms and documents are brought to the Registrar of Voters office. The Registrar’s office posts a summary on their website before they call it a night. The registrar’s provided TBE with an in-depth explanation of the process. Scroll down the page to their response to TBE’s email.
As for absentee ballots, the process starts much earlier for vote counters. Beginning at 1 p.m. on election day, Bristol election workers begin counting the absentee ballots at the Board of Education auditorium, which is open to the public.
But the work is not done.
Early Wednesday, the registrars audit their own work. The process includes re-examining each tally tape and tally sheet by verifying their accuracy.
According to the Registrar of Voters office, “Those hash marks and hand counts ballots that have not been properly filled out by a voter, must be counted and recorded the same as a ballot read by the tabulator.”
Unless there are extremely close races, come midnight the victors will be known, and this includes the ballot questions.
Regardless of the outcome, the Registrars’ goal is to maintain election integrity and to insure that every vote is counted and counted accurately.
The long version: Explanation from Registrars of Voters
Bristol’s registrars of voters, Sharon Kraweicki and Kevin McCauley provided TBE with the following explanation of the vote counting process:
In Connecticut, election results must be entered into the Secretary of the State’s Election Management System by midnight. All candidates and the public will know who won and who lost in all races and whether the 5 questions on the ballots passed or not. The exception to this would be an extremely close race whose numbers may change once we double check the tally tape and hand counts.
Results are not just one total number for each candidate on the ballot; it is a record of each individual vote cast on each individual line on each individual ballot. At 8:00 pm the Moderators at each polling location tally each and every vote for each candidate and their cross endorsement lines on the ballot and their corresponding hand counts (these are ballots not read by the tabulator and must be looked at individually). The 9 moderators then bring the tally tapes and tally sheets and other required forms to the Registrar of Voters office.
The Secretary of the State’s Election Management System requires that we enter a tally for each line on the ballot that a candidate occupies. This year’s ballot is extremely full with Lamont & Bysiewicz on the Democratic line, Lamont & Bysiewicz on the Griebel Frank for CT Party line, Lamont & Bysiewicz on the Working Family line, Lamont & Bysiewicz unknown votes (these are the votes when a voter fills in more than one bubble for a cross endorsed candidate, it counts as one vote, (unattributed to a political party). That’s a total of 4 tallies. Then add the tally for Republican candidates Stefanowski & Devlin. Add Hotaling & Beckett of the Independent Party and the certified Write-in candidates, Bicking & Martineau. That equals 7 tallies.
Let’s all add together. Bristol has 9 precincts (polling locations), plus Election Day Registration with 9 precincts and Absentee Balloting also with the 9 precincts. Multiply the above 7 tallies by 27 equals 189 entries just for the governor’s race.
The U.S. Senate race has 5 tallies equaling 135 entries, The Congressional race had 5 tallies equaling 135 entries, the State Senate race has 4 tallies equaling 108 entries and the Assembly races has 5 tallies equaling 135 entries , the Secretary of the State, 5 tallies equaling 135 entries, Treasurer, 6 tallies equaling 162 entries, Comptroller, 5 tallies equaling 135, Attorney General, 6 tallies equaling 162 entries, Judge of Probate, 1 tally equals 27 entries and Registrars of Voters has 2 equaling 54. The 5 questions on the ballot have 135 entries.
That makes for a grand total of 1,350 entries into the Secretary of the State’s Election Management System. It takes the same amount of time to enter and record whether it’s 1 vote or 100 votes for a candidate.
Early Wednesday morning we recheck our numbers. Each original tally tape and tally sheet is re-examined to be sure each number was read correctly and each and every hash mark and hand count was recorded. Those hash marks and hand counts are ballots that have not been properly filled out by a voter, but must be counted and recorded the same as a ballot read by the tabulator.
We post revised numbers of our final count into the Secretary of the State’s EMS. We also upload those numbers into our more user friendly excel spreadsheet by district, EDR and Absentee and post on our website by the end of Wednesday. Tally tapes, tally sheets and the Official Voter Lists are then turned over to the Town Clerk for the final audit and certification.
It is the duty of the Bristol Registrars of Voters office to ensure federal, state and local elections are conducted timely, responsibly, and with the highest level of professional Election standards. This is intended to earn and maintain public confidence in the electoral process, which extends to the accurate counting of each and every vote. Every vote counts!
Sharon Krawiecki Kevin McCauley
Republican Registrar of Voters Democratic Registrar of Voters
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