Budkins faces Ng in rare challenge
It has been a long time since town clerk Carmella Budkins faced an opponent in the Greenwich municipal elections.
Unopposed since 1991, when she first ran for the office, Budkins, the 10-term Republican incumbent, finally has a challenger in Democrat Stephen Ng, a Representative Town Meeting member....
...For Ng, serving as town clerk would be an opportunity to modernize an office for the next generation of tech-savvy Greenwich residents....
...If elected, Ng, a 14-year town resident originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., said he would strive to make adjustments to the department's office hours. For many working people, getting to the town clerk's office by 4 p.m. is impractical, he said. Ng explained that he'd like to extend office hours on at least one day mid-week by having an assistant. The assistant would leave early on another day, so the adjustment wouldn't require overtime, he said.
Ng, who has been endorsed by former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, a Democrat currently campaigning for U.S. Senate, added that he has spoken with town clerks across the state, including the clerk in Norwalk, as well as across the country, about how to fully modernize the office.
"I think the town clerk's website is archaic," he said.
Ng said more information about absentee ballots should be readily available on the site, particularly since there are students away at college who want to vote...
...Ng would also like to see a more streamlined system for people to submit documents, such as dog license applications, to the town.
Unseating Budkins won't be an easy task. Always one of the top vote-getters in local elections...
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