Readying the Machines in Stratford

If you abhor tedious work, you don’t want to be Lou DeCilio, Rick Marcone or Judy Scala today.

Those three are spending some five to six hours Thursday testing voting machines for party primaries scheduled on Sept. 10.

Since one of the two primaries is for mayor, all 20 machines must be tested so that each of the town's 10 polling stations has two machines, one for use and the other as a backup.


Both September primaries are for the Democratic Party.

Hopeful for a mayoral spot on the November ballot are Beth Daponte and Joe Paul. And competing to represent Democrats in the race for Third District Town Council are Stephanie Philips and Michael Singh.

DeCilio, the Republican registrar of voters, says the state recommends running 10 to 25 ballots through each machine to test its accuracy. He said the town switched from the old lever machines to the ones they use now in 2005.

And the machines, by the way, aren’t cheap. DeCilio said each costs between $5,000 and $7,000. So that adds up to at least $100,000 worth of machinery that needs to be tested and OK’d before the primary.