Election grants have been sent to every municipality in the state to help keep polling locations safe during the pandemic and give towns the resources to process, mail out, and count a record-breaking number of absentee ballots. The grant assumes that 80% of registered voters will chose to vote in 2020, and that 66% of those voters will choose to vote by absentee ballot.
Danbury is one of 20 municipalities to also be awarded an Election Day Registration Access Grant, because of the historical number of Election Day registrants, in order to be prepared for a potential surge in new voters registering to vote on Election Day. Each of the twenty towns is granted $2,500 and the total grant amount is $50,000.
Bethel $11,598
Brookfield $8,946
Danbury $56,569, including a $2,500 EDR stretch grant
Newtown $15,596
New Milford $16,206
New Fairfield $7,819
Redding $6,075
Ridgefield $13,902
The Secretary of the State also offered municipalities grants to strengthen their local election infrastructure. Towns were offered $200,000 in 50/50 matching grants to replace outdated equipment, $350,000 in Cybersecurity Risk Assessments by the Connecticut National Guard, and the Secure Polls Grant of $220,000 conditioned on completing cybersecurity training and risk assessments by the Connecticut National Guard.
