When Connecticut votes on Election Day, officials will use a combination of paper ballots, tabulators and expanded voting options. This reflects years of changes and improvements to strengthen the integrity of the voting system.
When Connecticut residents vote in person, they get a paper ballot. Then they directly feed it into a tabulator machine that counts the ballot. The state has updated its machines throughout the years, but the paper ballots remain.
Connecticut Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas spoke at a voter information session in September. Thomas explained why the state decided to stick with paper ballots while other states use voting machines
“The beauty of having paper is that you always have a record. That's the proof. Here in Connecticut, if our races are too close, we have automatic recounts. So we can take those ballots and recount them,” Thomas said.
The system lets the state physically keep track of ballots. It serves as evidence if a race is ever contested. Even if there were doubts about tabulators, paper ballots mean there’s no risk of ballots being lost due to a technical problem.
“Our results are not disappearing into the cloud somewhere, into the internet; it’s literally a piece of paper,” Thomas said.
Sometimes well-meaning people can still get their information slightly wrong, Thomas said. One major change she wanted to clarify was how the state processes early voting ballots.
When Connecticut first introduced early voting, voters filled out ballots and sealed them in an envelope to count later. This was similar to how absentee ballots are processed now. Thomas said that's because the tabulators used to count ballots weren’t up to date.
“We had really old election tabulators. They were purchased before the iPhone was invented. That's how old they were,” Thomas said.
Since then, the state has bought new equipment and tested tabulators in several state and municipal elections. This year, officials counted early voting ballots the same day they were cast.
Alexander Russell leads the Voting Technology Research Center at UConn. Russell said the combination of paper ballots and updated tabulators means a more secure voting process.
“It gives a very tight connection between the voter and the device that's actually carrying out the tabulation. That is, you know, you don't have to have ballots stored between the moment that they are cast and the moment that they are tabulated,” Russell said.
Connecticut also conducts mandatory audits after every election. The state randomly selects five percent of the tabulators used in the election, which is about 50 tabulators. The machines are independently audited and the results are sent to the center, where a team conducts a statistical analysis.
“The ballots that went through those tabulators are brought out of storage, and they are either hand counted or they are manually counted with, you know, the aid of some electronic software,” Russell said.
The results are then published online. Last year’s report revealed that the tabulators performed well. Russell said they found no evidence of tabulator failure. The discrepancies that were found in the counting process were below 1%. Russell said they were due to human error. He said the biggest risk of mishandling ballots during an election comes from absentee ballots. Not from election officials but from the voters themselves.
“I would definitely encourage people to make sure they are aware of the procedural details for absentee ballots, and you know, read the directions very carefully,” Russell said.
Thomas said that, regardless of how a person decides to vote, it’s important to know the new rules for their vote to count.
“The laws change; they can change all the time. So it always pays to treat every election like your first election and make sure you’re up to date with law changes.”
The state will audit the 2026 election results in November.
