And the costs are modest, for those municipalities that do not already have video surveillance of their drop boxes. According to the current draft of a regulation that was posted Monday and is likely to win approval by the state attorney general over the next few weeks, costs are estimated at about $3,500 for the equipment, $1,500 for the installation and $1,500 for the five-month-long storage of data that will be open for public inspection.
While the law was put into motion by the General Assembly last year, following a chain of alleged fraud and arrests of campaign workers in Bridgeport's mayoral primaries in 2019 as well as the primaries and general election last year and in 2023, it didn't take effect until July 1. Leaders of the Connecticut Town Clerks Association said that many communities already take video of their municipal buildings for overall security reasons and that most drop boxes are near those entrances.
"I think most towns already have security systems," said Derby Town Clerk Marc Garofalo, vice president of the clerks association. In Derby, City Hall is a former bank building with a night-time slot in the entrance where residents can put their tax payments. He said that the city of Derby planned to upgrade its existing system, so the new guidelines were easy to meet.
"I had been staying in touch on the legislation," Garofalo said, noting that for bigger cities with multiple drop boxes, the costs will be higher. "Ours is in a spot where it would be covered anyway. In general, the cameras protect us and from my point of view, I welcome it. We are the stewards of a free and fair election."
In the summary of the regulation posted on Monday, Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas's office said that the comment period resulted in the final draft of the regulation putting town clerks, not voter registrars, in charge of the video equipment. An original provision required video cameras to be within 20 feet of drop boxes, but the final draft allow cameras to be farther away, as long as the images of people using the boxes are clear.
"All of Connecticut learned the benefit of drop box cameras in 2023, and although many municipalities already had their absentee ballot drop boxes under surveillance, some did not," Thomas said Tuesday. "We were pleased to work with the legislature and local officials to close this critical loophole by requiring both surveillance and storage of the footage.".
The regulation also originally required cities and towns responding to requests to review video within 24 hours, but that was lengthened to four business days, to conform with the state's Freedom of Information Act. "We have now emphasized that the recordings are public and may be made available through the normal FOIA process and that towns are not required to publish the material on their website," wrote Louis Button, an attorney for the Secretary of the State.
"Many of the town clerks' comments were taken into consideration," said Lisa Dalton, the Watertown town clerk who is president of the clerks' association. "I really haven't heard from clerks on a possible hubbub. It's not a financial issue." She said Watertown Town Hall also already had video coverage of its entrance and ballot collection box. Watertown has 15,000 and a population of 22,000. The cameras were in effect for a budget referendum last year and this year; the presidential preference primary last year, as well as early voting and the general election, she said.
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