Title 9 — Title 9: Elections

Sec. 9-235b. Runners. At any election or primary, any person may serve as a runner solely to enter and leave a polling place and the restricted area surrounding the polling place for the purpose of taking outside the polling place and said area, information identifying electors w…

Sec. 9-235c. Voluntary service by election, primary or referendum officials. Notwithstanding any provision of the general statutes to the contrary or of any special act, charter or ordinance, any election, primary or referendum official may serve on a voluntary basis without comp…

Sec. 9-235d. Citizens sixteen or seventeen years of age authorized to serve as election or primary officials. Requirements. (a) Notwithstanding any provision of sections 9-233, 9-235 and 9-258 a United States citizen who is sixteen or seventeen years of age and a bona fide reside…

Sec. 9-235e. Secretary of the State allowed access to polling places and locations designated for the conduct of early voting. Except as otherwise provided in this section, the Secretary of the State, or the Secretary's designee, shall be allowed access to each polling place or l…

Sec. 9-236. Activities prohibited in and near polling place; distance markers; entry restricted; exceptions. (a) On the day of any primary, referendum or election, no person shall solicit on behalf of or in opposition to the candidacy of another or himself or on behalf of or in o…

Sec. 9-236a. Spare voting tabulator or ballot box for educational use of students. Any town, on its own initiative or upon a request by the Secretary of the State, and with the approval of the legislative body of the town or, in the case of a town in which the legislative body is…

Sec. 9-236b. Voter's Bill of Rights. Sample ballots. Voters in line when polls scheduled to close permitted to vote. Voting instructions and information. Display of identification requirements. (a) The Secretary of the State shall provide each municipality with sufficient quantit…

Sec. 9-237. Display of national and state flags. A United States flag, at least three feet by five feet in size, shall be displayed, and a Connecticut state flag of the same size may be displayed, on the wall inside each polling place during the hours of voting on the day of any …

Sec. 9-237a. Telephones at polling places. The registrars of voters shall provide a telephone for each polling place for the use of the election officials to aid in clarifying the status of electors whose right to vote is questioned, if a telephone is not available and readily ac…

Sec. 9-238. *(See end of section for amended version of subsection (a) and effective date.) Voting tabulators required. Notification of purchase or discontinuance of use. *(a) Except as provided in section 9-272, voting tabulators shall be used at all elections held in any munici…

Sec. 9-238a. Report to Secretary of number of voting tabulators. During the first week of February in each year, the town clerk of each town shall notify the Secretary of the State, on a form provided by said Secretary, of the total number of voting tabulators in such town and, i…

Sec. 9-239. Payment for voting tabulators. The fiscal authority in each municipality shall authorize payment of the bill incurred for the purchase or lease or other method of acquisition of an adequate number of voting tabulators incurred by the officials responsible for providin…

Sec. 9-240. Provision of voting tabulators and booths. The board of selectmen in each town, unless otherwise provided by law, shall provide or may authorize the registrars to provide a suitable room or rooms and voting tabulator booths for holding all elections. The interior of t…

Sec. 9-240a. Periodic examination of voting tabulators. Not more than two hundred ten days nor less than thirty days prior to each regular election for state officers, each voting tabulator to be used in the next succeeding regular election, including each additional tabulator re…

Sec. 9-241. Examination and approval of tabulators by Secretary. Subsequent alteration made by voting tabulator companies. Use of hole-punch voting tabulators prohibited. Regulations. Agreement with The University of Connecticut or Connecticut State University System. (a) Any per…

Sec. 9-242. Voting tabulator and direct recording electronic voting tabulator construction requirements. Attribution of unknown votes for cross-endorsed candidates. (a) A voting tabulator approved by the Secretary of the State shall be so constructed as to provide facilities for …

Sec. 9-242a. Regulations concerning use of voting machines. Notwithstanding any provision of the general statutes to the contrary, in the event that the Secretary of the State approves for use, in the manner provided by section 9-241, a kind of voting machine not so approved on J…

Sec. 9-242b. Procedures for use of direct recording electronic voting tabulators. The following procedures shall apply to any election or primary in which one or more direct recording electronic voting tabulators are used: (1) Any elector who requires assistance by reason of blin…

Sec. 9-242c. Voting Technology Standards Board. Section 9-242c is repealed, effective May 24, 2011. (P.A. 05-235, S. 13; P.A. 11-20, S. 39; 11-173, S. 69.)

Sec. 9-243. Mechanics. Instruction and certification by the Secretary of the State. Section 9-243 is repealed, effective May 24, 2011. (1949 Rev., S. 1197; 1953, S. 720d; 1957, P.A. 561, S. 5; 1959, P.A. 487, S. 1; 1969, P.A. 355, S. 3; P.A. 80-215, S. 5; P.A. 81-467, S. 4, 8; P.…

Sec. 9-244. Inspection by party watchers, party chairpersons, candidates and officials. (a) Such registrars of voters shall give written notice to the chairpersons of the town committees of the political parties of the day and place a registrar or registrars will begin the prepar…

Sec. 9-245. Filing of reports. The reports of the registrars of voters, provided for under section 9-246, and the report provided for under subsection (c) of section 9-244, shall be filed with the municipal clerk and shall be kept by the municipal clerk for at least sixty days af…

Sec. 9-246. Duties of registrars re condition of tabulators. Repairs made on election day. Required reports. (a) The registrar or registrars shall file a written report of the condition of each tabulator certifying that (1) they have prepared the tabulators, (2) all the counters …

Sec. 9-247. Preparation of tabulators. The registrars of voters shall, before the day of the election, cause test ballots to be inserted in each tabulator to ensure that each tabulator is prepared and read and cause each other voting system approved by the Secretary of the State …

Sec. 9-247a. Candidates, immediate family members and associated business entities prohibited from transporting, preparing, repairing or maintaining voting tabulator. Exception. No candidate, as defined in section 9-601, member of the immediate family, as defined in section 1-79,…

Sec. 9-248. Furnishing of supplies. When a voting tabulator is purchased or leased or otherwise provided for use in any municipality, the Secretary of the State shall prepare or approve samples of the following printed matter and supplies and shall furnish one of each to the offi…

Sec. 9-249. Instruction of election officials. (a) Before each election, the registrars of voters and the certified head moderator shall instruct the election officials. Any provision of the general statutes or of any special act to the contrary notwithstanding, election official…

Sec. 9-249a. Order of parties on ballots. (a) The names of the parties shall be arranged on the ballots in the following order: (1) The party whose candidate for Governor polled the highest number of votes in the last-preceding election; (2) Other parties who had candidates for G…

Sec. 9-249b. Arrangement of ballots when more than nine party designations and petitioning candidate rows. (a) If, after applying the provisions of sections 9-249a and 9-453r, the number of party designations and petitioning candidate rows on the ballot exceeds nine, the Secretar…

Sec. 9-250. Form of ballots. Ballots shall be printed in plain clear type and on material of such size as will fit the tabulator, and shall be furnished by the registrar of voters. The size and style of the type used to print the name of a political party on a ballot shall be ide…

Sec. 9-250a. Blank space where party fails to nominate. When a political party has failed to nominate a candidate for any office for which it is entitled to make such nomination, the space on the ballot in which the name of the party's candidate would appear shall be left blank. …

Sec. 9-251. Order of office on ballots. In the preparation of ballots for use at a state election, precedence shall be given to the offices to be voted for at such election in the following descending order: Presidential electors, Governor and Lieutenant Governor, United States s…

Sec. 9-252. Transferred to Chapter 146, Part II, Sec. 9-183b.

Sec. 9-253. Order of names of party nominees for multiple-opening office determined by lot. Order when candidate nominated by more than one party. When a major or minor party is entitled to nominate two or more candidates for a particular office, the order of the names of its can…

Sec. 9-254. List of municipal offices to be filled. Each municipal clerk shall, not later than the one hundred eightieth day prior to the day of any regular municipal election, file with the Secretary of the State, on a form approved by said Secretary, a list of the offices to be…

Sec. 9-255. Sample ballots. The registrars of voters shall provide for all polling places using voting tabulators at least two sample ballots that shall contain the offices, party designations, names of candidates, write-in slots and questions to be voted upon. On each such sampl…

Sec. 9-255a. Certification re number of ballots ordered. (a) The registrars of voters and municipal clerk from each municipality shall jointly certify, in writing, to the Secretary of the State the number of ballots for each polling place in the municipality that have been ordere…

Sec. 9-256. Filing of sample ballot with Secretary. The registrars of voters of each municipality shall, not less than ten days prior to the commencement of the period of early voting at an election, file with the Secretary of the State a sample ballot identical with those to be …

Sec. 9-257. Location of voting tabulator and stationing of officials. The room in which the election is held shall be separated from the part of the room to be occupied by the election officials and the voting tabulator shall be placed, if possible, at least three feet from any w…

Sec. 9-258. Election officials; additional lines of electors. (a) For municipalities with more than one voting district, the election officials of each polling place shall be electors of the state and shall consist of (1) one moderator, (2) at least one but not more than two offi…

Sec. 9-258a. Two shifts of election officials. Notwithstanding any provision of the general statutes, special acts or its charter, in each municipality the registrars of voters, or assistant registrar of voters, as the case may be may establish, except for unofficial checkers and…

Sec. 9-259. Duties of election officials before polls open; moderator's return certificates. (a) The moderator of the election in each municipality, voting district or ward shall appear at the office of the registrar of voters not later than eight o'clock p.m. of the day before t…

Sec. 9-260. Instruction by means of demonstrator device. A demonstrator device shall be provided inside the polling place for the instruction of electors. Any such demonstrator device shall instruct electors on the proper method to cast their vote, including the proper method to …

Sec. 9-261. Process of voting. (a) In each primary, election or referendum, when an elector has entered the polling place, the elector shall announce the elector's street address, if any, and the elector's name to the official checker or checkers in a tone sufficiently loud and c…

Sec. 9-261a. Preparation of polling place form of identification by committee prohibited. No committee, as defined in section 9-601, shall prepare any form of identification for the purpose of being presented to the checkers at the polling place pursuant to section 9-261. (P.A. 9…

Sec. 9-261b. Privacy sleeve. The registrars of voters shall either ensure that each ballot clerk offer every elector a privacy sleeve into which the ballot can be inserted and fully shielded from view or, in the alternative, place such privacy sleeve in every voting booth for the…

Sec. 9-261c. Electronic devices used to check names of electors. The Secretary of the State shall review, in consultation and coordination with The University of Connecticut, electronic devices that could assist official checkers in checking the names of electors pursuant to sect…

Sec. 9-262. Duties of election officials during voting hours. During the entire period of an election, at least one of the election officials shall be stationed approximately three to four feet from the voting tabulator to regulate the submission of the elector's ballot. The elec…

Sec. 9-263. Use of paper ballots when voting machine damaged. Section 9-263 is repealed, effective October 1, 2007. (1949 Rev., S. 1206; 1953, S. 739d; 1957, P.A. 561, S. 18; 1959, P.A. 487, S. 5; P.A. 80-339, S. 2; P.A. 95-185, S. 2; P.A. 00-79, S. 2; P.A. 04-113, S. 7; P.A. 07-…

Sec. 9-264. Assistance to elector who is blind, has disability or is unable to write or to read the ballot. An elector who requires assistance to vote, by reason of blindness, disability or inability to write or to read the ballot, may be given assistance by a person of the elect…