Baala Shakya, Staff Photographer

Just after noon on Aug. 21, a crowd of dozens of first-year students and their Camp Yale counselors filed into Silliman College, where they were scheduled to have lunch. Elias Theodore ’27, expecting them, stood behind a table decorated with a neon campaign banner and equipped with voter registration forms.

“If anyone wants to register to vote in Connecticut, it takes three minutes!” he yelled toward the students.

Not missing a beat, a Camp Yale leader shouted in response, “Guys, vote for Elias for alder.” Another yelled, “Okay, Elias, period!” 

Regardless, most of the first years ignored his request. After the group entered the dining hall, Theodore sat back down at his table and resolved that it would be easier to reach students in small groups on their way out of the dining hall. He then resumed sending a mass email to counselors for three different Camp Yale programs, using email lists he got from friends, encouraging them to share information about the Ward 1 alder race with their first-year campers. 

Theodore is competing in a historic three-way primary to represent downtown New Haven on the Board of Alders alongside Rhea McTiernan Huge ’27 and Norah Laughter ’26. Ward 1 contains eight of the University’s 14 residential colleges, Old Campus, half of the New Haven Green and several downtown businesses. 

Throughout his campaign, Theodore, who grew up in New Haven’s East Rock neighborhood, has leaned on fellow students for support. His friends gave him the email lists he used for mass messaging, and a coalition of supporters have helped him produce his Instagram Reels, design his website and coordinate outreach to various constituent groups. 

That morning, after a meeting in Fair Haven with Ward 15 Alder Frank Redente Jr., Theodore drove downtown to complete a task that became ritual: dropping off students’ voter registration forms with the Registrar of Voters. Theodore spent several minutes asking registrar officials about election day procedures, registration deadlines and absentee voting.

Theodore’s friends have been key to his campaign. As he stopped to pick up a wagon of campaign materials from his suite in Jonathan Edwards College, he mentioned that all seven of his suitemates are engaged in his campaign, including two working as his treasurers. 

Theodore also dipped into his network of fellow First-Year Outdoor Orientation Trips leaders to get the word out about his campaign, speaking to the full group of leaders on their first day of fall training and sending a campaign email to the entire group. 

While on route from Jonathan Edwards to meet the first years eating lunch at Silliman, Theodore stopped at a bulletin board on Cross Campus to pin up one of the campaign posters stored in his wagon. 

“Everything is working in tandem,” Theodore explained. “You have to put many efforts out there into the world and hope that some of them work for somebody.”

Following Theodore’s midday stop at Silliman — which yielded just a few registrations — he met with Maya Quaranta ’29 for a lunchtime strategy meeting. 

The pair glanced over a list of Ward 1 voters and phone numbers from years ago. Phone calling has been part of their strategy to reach non-Yalie Ward 1 voters, including people who live in downtown apartment buildings. Quaranta was also using Theodore’s campaign Instagram account to follow the people that signed Theodore’s petition to appear on the primary ballot and who registered to vote at his tables.

Quaranta, a first year from Orange, Conn., is working on Theodore’s social media campaign, which included an effort to follow members of the class of 2029 on Instagram. Quaranta lives in Timothy Dwight College, meaning she won’t be eligible to vote in the Ward 1 race, but she says she feels the election would affect all of Yale, which is why she wanted to get involved.

“You can tell he cares. To care so much about a city is a rare thing,” Quaranta said about Theodore.

She volunteered to haul his wagon — stocked with a table, the posters and other campaign materials — on the way to begin the team’s next task: filming Instagram Reels.

Theodore was the earliest candidate in the Ward 1 race to create an Instagram account, which has reached over 1,100 followers since it launched in July. His video content has answered fundamental questions about the race, such as what an alder is and what Ward 1 encompasses, but has not delved deeply into his policy goals. 

Hoping to change that, that day, Theodore filmed a video explaining his goal to increase Yale’s voluntary contribution to New Haven. For this task, Theodore enlisted Vikram Dalal, a friend of Theodore’s younger brother, to hold the camera as he recorded segments across the New Haven Green and Old Campus. Dalal is a senior at Wilbur Cross High School, Theodore’s alma mater.

In the midst of recording, Theodore stopped groups of students walking on Old Campus to ask them if they’d register to vote. He spent the rest of the day tabling there and in Saybrook College, successfully registering 14 new voters by the end of the day. 

After walking home to have dinner with his family, Theodore spent the evening tallying registrations, reaching students who hadn’t completed their forms properly and planning for the next day of campaigning. 

Theodore said that he had been having a hard time sleeping in, even after late nights of campaign work. He faces a regular stream of self-critical thoughts, he said, wondering what he could have done differently on a given day: registered more voters, stayed outside tabling longer, done “more.” But he doesn’t let those doubts fester, leaning instead on the people around him, he said. 

“I’m someone who gets really invested in things,” he said. “I have a hard time finding balance. But when I am stressed, I don’t hold it in.”

The News will hold a debate with all three candidates on Sept. 3 at the First and Summerfield United Methodist Church.