Did you know

  • The Registrars of Voters Office registered 296 new voters in 2020.
  • There are 6692 active and 588 inactive voters in Prospect as of May 2024.
  • There are 2 Precincts in Prospect: 89-1) Prospect Firehouse) & 89-2 (Prospect Community Center)
  • For the November 3, 2020 Presidential Election 6,195 of registered voters in Prospect voted.
  • The next General Election is November 5, 2024.
  • Absentee voting provisions were first added to the Connecticut constitution in 1864 (Article XIII of the Amendments to the 1818 Constitution) to allow Civil War soldiers to vote by absentee ballot. The General Assembly first attempted to accomplish this objective through legislation in 1862, but the Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional (Opinion of the Judges of the Supreme Court, 30 Conn. 591, 1862 WL 941 (Conn.)), thus necessitating a constitutional amendment. That amendment was effective only for the duration of the war.

After the war, absentee voting was not addressed in the constitution until 1932, through Article XXXIX of the Amendments to the 1818 Constitution. (In 1918 the legislature passed a temporary absentee voting law for World War I soldiers.) The 1932 amendment allowed the General Assembly to enact legislation establishing absentee voting privileges for individuals who could not appear at the polls because of absence from their city or town, sickness, or physical disability. In 1964, the privilege was extended to include individuals whose religion forbids secular activity on the day of an election (Article XII of the Amendments to the 1955 Constitution). These provisions are now codified in Article VI, Section Seven of the current constitution. Legislation authorizing the use of absentee ballots is codified at CGS § 9-135.

  • The first woman to vote was Lydia Chapin Taft in 1756, New Jersey. At the time, the only individuals allowed to vote were free male property owners. Out of respect for her deceased husband who was a large contributor to the town, she was allowed to vote as his proxy, thereby giving her the distinction of being the first woman to vote in this country.
  • The first woman to vote under the 19th Amendment was in St. Paul, MN.