At Greenwich No Kings Event, Rally-Goers Pledge to Vote Early

The lawn in front of the Havemeyer building was again the setting for hundreds of people to gather for a No Kings rally in Greenwich.

This time the focus was on getting out the vote. In particular, speakers urged voters to head to the polls early for the midterm elections.

The event, organized by Indivisible Greenwich, was part of a nationwide early-voting push involving nearly 3,000 localized voter events.

n

Indivisible Greenwich’s Joanna Swomley said early voting gives eligible voters a convenient way to vote and time to deal with problems that could otherwise keep them from voting on Election Day, such as having been unknowingly purged from a voter roll and needing to re-register, and unforeseen issues such as illness.

Nerlyn Piersen, another founder of Indivisible Greenwich, shared a statement from Senator Murphy, who said he anticipated a record turnout and described the midterm election as being the most important election of a lifetime.

“I’m here today because I’m mad as hell. The president is doing everything he can to prevent us from voting,” said Greenwich Selectwoman Rachel Khanna said. “Whether it’s trying to pass the SAVE America Act that would potentially disenfranchise millions of voters, or restricting mail-in voting, he’s trying his damndest to make sure that people can’t vote.”

“All these shenanigans are illegal,” she said.

Khanna emphasized that in Connecticut it is now easier to vote by absentee ballot because voters are no longer required to provide a specific reason or excuse to request an absentee ballot for any referendum, primary or election.

Connecticut voters have three options to cast their ballot: voting in person on election day, voting early in person, or voting by absentee ballot – no excuse required.

“Democracy isn’t defended by watching. It’s defended by showing up,” Khanna said.

David Weisbrod, Democratic chair of Greenwich’s Board of Estimate and Taxation, said he planned to vote early when polls open on Monday.

Wearing a blue cap that that said ‘Keep Democracy Working for America,’ Weisbrod said there had been several crazy kings in history, starting with King Nebuchadnezzar II, the ruler of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, who believed he was a bovine.

“He had a strange disease called boanthropy. It is the belief that you are a bovine. In this case he thought he was an ox,” Weibrod said.  “For seven years he grazed in the fields eating grass.”

“King Charles VI of France thought he was made of glass. If you touched him he would shatter into a million pieces,” Weisbrod said.

“Of course we had our own experience with the mad King George III. That king met his match when our founding fathers said to him, in America we have no kings!”

Weisbrod quoted Thomas Paine who wrote in his 1776 pamphlet: in an absolute government, the king is law, but the very premise of America is that the law is king.

Weisbrod said in Greenwich people tell him they are fed up with the chaos.

“This is a nonpartisan yearning for normal. People do not want to see a wannabe king spending 7 out of 10 days since he took office trampling on the integrity of our voting system. Democracy is a non partisan virtue.”

“It’s our collective duty to protect the right to vote,” Weisbrod said. “No one wants to live in a country  where someone sits on a throne while all the rest of us scramble for our basic rights.”

Jim Himes, US Congressman from CT’s 4th district, said he had already stopped at Wilton, Weston, Stamford and Norwalk talking about getting out the vote.

Himes noted that for two and a half centuries, Americans have made unimaginable sacrifices to secure the right to vote.

“All over the country people are standing up and saying this is our moment. I was standing next to a sign that read, ‘this is not a left or right moment; it is t is a right or wrong moment.’ It is a democracy or something else moment. It is a decency or indecency moment. It is a king or a people moment. It is a rule of law or rule of billionaire’s moment, and we are here to make that choice,” Himes said.

“This is the moment we have been waiting for,” Himes said.

“Two years ago, in something that deserves reflection and thought, the American people handed the most powerful office in the land to a man who has in every day since used that power to be a dictator, to aspire to be a king, not in the service of serving the country and making us a better people, but in the service of accruing more power, and accruing immense wealth to him and to his family.”

“We are a nation of laws, not of the obscene desires of one man. This is our moment – 17 days to turn the corner and reestablish the values that draw all of us here.”

See also:

Governor Lamont Signs Legislation Making Absentee Ballots an Option for All Voters in Connecticut Elections

May 19, 2026