State of the Secretaries with Stephanie Thomas

Declare: Polls typically find that Americans trust elections run in their own backyard much more than those in other communities and states. What should the average American who doesn’t live in your backyard . . . know about elections in your state?

Secretary Stephanie Thomas: I think Americans are correct to trust their elections. So what they should know is that, for the same reasons they trust the elections in their backyard, they should trust the elections in my backyard.

I also have friends and neighbors who are election administrators who, across every town in Connecticut, are running the elections. There is no boogeyman in the corner. It’s people you know from the PTA, the Lions Club, and that is who are powering elections across this country.

And we in Connecticut have many, many processes, like a Republican and Democrat in charge of every election, automatic recounts, paper ballots, no connection to the internet, strong audits after every election. We also have required certification for our election workers and eight hours of continuing education every single year. So we do a lot to make sure that we are putting out strong and secure elections.

Declare: Granting that there isn’t a single “American election system” — what is your opinion of American elections, in general?

Thomas: My opinion is that we are living in a representative democracy, and “We, the People” — it is not only our right, but really our obligation to not only vote but stay involved, civically engaged all year round. So, I believe the franchise is so important, and it’s the gateway to that type of year-round involvement. So I always encourage everyone to get involved, stay engaged.

Declare: Since the COVID year, congressional Democrats, congressional Republicans, and President Trump have taken turns trying to create election policy. From your perspective — what could the federal government provide that could actually help you do your job?

Thomas: What I hear from my locals all the time: They would like to be paid more, because they are underpaid given the amount of hours they put in. They would like more resources to educate voters about the policies, the safeguards, because they often don’t have budgets in their towns to get that information out.

And they would like not only training in some of the newer threats to elections, such as cybersecurity awareness, etc., but they want to make sure they are getting timely information from the federal government.

You know, in Connecticut, our elections — we don’t have a county form of government — so they are administered town by town. So if we have a town with 600 people, for example, they have no capacity to monitor what Iran and Russia are doing. So they would like to receive those types of services from the federal government.