Update: From Democratic Registrar Sandi Ayala. “Secretary of the State Office has notified the Kearney campaign in writing that we have followed state statutes. They are not entitled to official poll workers, unofficial soft sheet workers or observers.”
Five days from a special election to fill the legislative seat vacated by Chris Caruso, the campaign of Verna Kearney is urging state elections officials to appoint observers to oversee the balloting process. Kearney is one of seven candidates that will appear on the ballot Feb. 22. Charlie Stallworth and James Keyser have been endorsed by the Democratic and Republican parties respectively. Kearney, Mark Trojanowski, Carlos Silva, Robert Keeley and Tom Lombard are running as petitioning candidates.
Kearney is supported by Caruso who’s had a running battle with Democratic Registrar of Voters Sandi Ayala since his mayoral primary loss to Bill Finch in 2007. Caruso claimed numerous voting irregularities cost him the election. The ballot shortage on Election Day last November compounded Caruso’s beef with Ayala. Ayala says the complaint is “typical harassment” from Caruso. “You expect it from him.” Kearney’s complaint:
Verna Kearney’s campaign for state legislature in the February 22 Special Election requested Secretary of State Denise Merrill to appoint independent, non-partisan, observers to insure a free and fair election after Bridgeport’s Registrar of Voters, Santa Ayala, refused to appoint poll workers from Kearney’s list as required by law.
Kearney said, “We’ve had enough incompetence, negligence, and possible corruption from this Registrar of Voters. It’s time we step up and protect the integrity of the ballot box before the election. Free and fair elections do not just happen; we have to make them free and fair; and that’s why I’m filing this complaint.”
She continued, “Last election, Ayala failed to order enough ballots, ran out of ballots during voting hours suppressing voter turnout and depriving many of their right to vote and have their say as to who runs our great State and country. In the last Mayoral primary one precinct had a hundred or more votes cast than people who showed up at the polling place and the Connecticut Supreme Court cited numerous other violations of election law.
In his complaint to the Secretary of State’s Office, David Rosa, Campaign Counsel to the Kearney campaign stated, “…we request that the Secretary of The State’s office appoint, in accordance with General Statute § 9-229a…independent, non-partisan, polling place observers… Failure to do this may seriously jeopardize public confidence in the voting process in Bridgeport.”
Kearney concluded, “I’m asking our newly elected Secretary of State to make it clear that she will protect the integrity of Bridgeport’s elections and not tolerate any election day Shenanigans in the polling places.”
Well, the crybabies are here again. It seems this group up in Caruso’s area will stop at nothing to embarrass the city. Sure the registrar screwed up by not having enough ballots and sure there may have been some irregularities but didn’t we have monitors at the Governor’s election?
I have a message for Caruso, it wasn’t irregularities that beat you. You went to court over your allegations and lost. You lost the election because you had a bad platform and did not offer the voters a viable alternative. You yelled corruption, corruption, corruption without any proof. You offered up very little on issues that affected Bridgeport residents. To the Kearney supporters, remember Malloy lost in the 3 polling places that were in Caruso’s territory.
town committee // Feb 17, 2011 at 11:06 am
To your posting
TC
Think about this and give me your thoughts.
We do know that given all the factors to be considered, there was a shortage of ballots, no getting around it. And there was unnecessary chaos and confusion.
Could this particular special election in a small area of the City be observed in terms of correcting the practices that make up some of these very factors?
And could observing in the upcoming primary help us prepare for the next City-wide primary?
(Although I have a vested interest in knowing the balloting is handled in a clean manner, I think we need some proof there is the capacity to do this.)
For example, you know workers were not sufficiently trained.
Did workers influence voters when they helped voters with filling in their circles on the ballot document?
Will there be enough ballots if in the past primaries there were very few ballots?
Will workers be more focused on getting food to eat?
Will there be a dedicated number to call for voting problems?
What else?
Not to be facetious, but it would be a good OIB’er project for the day.
I am sure representatives from the Gomes campaign have an interest in being there during the voting day as well.
When you take away the candidates involved here, no matter how they may or may not whine, do we owe voters across the whole City some assurance of the integrity of the system?
Carolanne: I agree the poll workers in some cases leave a lot to be desired. We don’t pay them enough or train them enough. Who wants to work for $100 for a 15-16 hr day? People act like Bridgeport was the only city or town that ran out of ballots; I believe there were 11 others that also ran out of ballots, still that’s no excuse.
The Kearney camp wants to appoint people from her camp as poll workers, then you have to do it for all the candidates then we have more observers than voters and I am sure there will be campaigning taking place inside the polls.
It just seems the cast of characters in the Kearney camp makes their protest questionable.
Public confidence in the voting process of the City of Bridgeport has waned to a low level … deservedly so. I welcome high-level scrutiny that will ensure all votes are cast properly in accordance with all election laws. Only a calamarian would suggest otherwise.
Singing the same old song but still out of key.
Who elected you the know-everything about everything?
No one, it’s known as Freedom of Speech.
The best way to prevent precinct “shenanigans” is to have good workers at the precincts, particularly moderators and assistants who get along.
Election observers are OK if they have half a clue to stay out of the way, and OBSERVE.
There was a precinct in Bridgeport in the 1980s that was so whacked, I routinely assigned a very good reporter–very good–as an observer with satisfying results–for the Post-Telegram. We usually had a great story about some dispute breaking out at some point on Primary Day or Election Day.
Those stories ended when a certain individual was named press secretary by Mayor Tom Bucci and convinced the city to staff the precinct with cops in the afternoons at crucial hours so the Post-Telegram could not routinely trash the city’s image. Hey, it was shooting fish in a barrel. I admit it, I was trying to sell newspapers.
I showed up one afternoon to check on the reporter and there were four patrol officers and a sergeant hanging out! Two cops were assigned, the other guys were swinging around when it was slow and the sarge was checking his sector. Sorta ruined that story!
Watch the absentees.
I don’t remember being that smart (or stupid).
Evasive and non-responsive.
I still don’t remember being that smart (or stupid).
I seem to recall that took the cops out of the polling places. Claimed it cost too much.
Next Tuesday, we will discuss for a full hour the issues regarding fair elections and the ballot in Bridgeport from Nov 2 ballot bungle.
Verna Kearney: “It’s time we step up and protect the integrity of the ballot box before the election. Free and fair elections do not just happen.”
Right, they don’t just happen, people need to first understand what is involved and what happened. Before we fix the system, it’s good to know how it works and what went wrong. And here to discuss this are the experts, next Tuesday Feb 22 on “Bridgeport Now” to hear:
Guests:
– The League of Women Voters Connecticut President
– Executive Director of the Connecticut Citizen Election Audit Coalition
– Possible call in from new Secretary of State
By the way, the CT Post reached out to the LWV to get methodology for the recount.
Another issue is absentee ballots, and how they are supervised. Can make or break an election.
Sure, this may be some sour grapes on Caruso’s part, but let’s remember:
1) In the mayoral election the courts did find there were serious mistakes made by the registrar’s office.
2) The problems identified in the most recent election went far beyond not enough ballots. There appeared to be serious issues with the training of election monitors, including the chief moderator.
3) The monitors who were present at the November election were simply volunteer attorneys who were not empowered to do anything by any public official. Maybe that’s why despite their presence they seemed to have accomplished nothing of great significance.
4) According to state law, the election day polling place monitors are to be divided in an impartial manner. In the case of a primary half go to the endorsed candidate and half divided amongst the challengers. In the general half Democrat half Republican. I am not sure what the law is for special elections but if this was not followed or allowed to become an issue due to improper decisions made by the registrars, this is a legitimate problem.
5) The great investigation by Mayor Moonbeam headed up by his henchman Nick the Trick Panuzio has come up with zero recommendations in time for this election.
If Denise Merrill wanted to show some spunk, she would do something in Bridgeport other than sit back and watch from afar. If Denise is different than Susan, here is her first opportunity to prove it.
Did that report ever get issued by the panel that held the public hearing after the 2010 voting shortage debacle? Does anyone have it? Maybe we could all learn something from that review.
Countdown, we propose a book or presence on the internet be created. The report on financial collapse released a book on what happened, for example. We already created an animation within the following video segment to illustrate what happened.
www .youtube.com/watch?v=sFzHYJ1mA_k
American leaders boast of how we are an example of the free world and democracy. However at home the truth is there are no more ballots at 1:30pm and no plan B in place. From levers to scans, the ballot bungle continues.
Maybe humor is called for. Since we already have a one-party political system in Bridgeport and many I talk to say it won’t change in their lifetime … why not just let the Democrat Town Committee oversee the whole process and have just one Registrar instead of two? We could actually save money this way and maybe pass a law that requires all city council members be from one party.
Off topic, but I wanted to make sure OIB saw today’s NY Post editorial about Dan Malloy. I voted for him with some trepidation … Hope I didn’t make a mistake.
Read more: www .nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/connecticut_gift_to_new_york_t0w9A1oADLXXbcFLZiMv4J
Frustrated Bridgeport Democrat // Feb 17, 2011 at 2:38
To your posting
Frustrated …
I guess you didn’t have a chance to read the New York Times story on Malloy … 2-16-2011
Two different newspapers … two different viewpoints.
But I will say … we’ve got to pay the piper at some point for all the wasted tax dollars during the past 20 years.
I told you so!!!
Carolanne:
Inadvertently, the 126th Assembly race is a tune-up for different Democratic factions to get ready for the mayoral primary.
It’s a chance to see who works and who doesn’t work, and what is bad, and what is BAD.
From observation, if everyone is watching, Bridgeport elections are GENERALLY so clean you can serve dinner on them. It’s still a good idea to know where the washrags are to clean the table of crumbs.
Jim Callahan // Feb 17, 2011 at 3:05 pm
To your posting
Jim,
I see this as a small miracle for campaigns such as the one being run by John Gomes.
We would have suffered terribly had not the series of election and ballot problems surfaced with a vengeance.
I think you would agree we would be the recipients of what is BAD, not being part of the DTC system under Mario.
?????????
A little paranoia is a good thing, Carolanne.
My experience indicates the best policy in Bridgeport elections is to be careful of the “enthusiasm” of everyone, including your closest.
One night I wandered into a bar (imagine that) and found representatives of four mayoral campaigns with voter registration lists spread out all over a large table in the back.
Uh, do tell.
“Everybody brought their cheat sheets. We want to have an honest primary.”
I gave ’em 24 hours to cover their tracks before I filed a generalized story that everyone was hoping for an honest primary. (Some guys were already sources. I just picked up several more.)
It was a rough primary. It was noisy. There was a lack of League-of-Women-Voters decorum. It was honest.
That’s the funny thing about political endorsements. Verna Keeley’s lips move, but I hear Chris Caruso’s voice.
It wasn’t Chris Caruso who inspired this move. Wish I could say more, but I’m a young kid and what the hell do I know anyway?
Verna Keeley? Has Bob Keeley become a cross dresser?
Sorry about that! They both better hope the voters don’t get them confused.
VOTE Mark Trojanowski for Connecticut State Rep on Feb 22
Only 1 Can Be The Best.
Repeat: www .voteformarkfeb22.com
10thM:
My observation as an old(er) writer is old pols do stuff that gets young guys shaking their heads about how goofy the old guys are.
When the young guys get old, they get goofy like the guys they vowed never to be like.
Mr. Grimaldi is being much too modest about his role in calming precincts.
Hey Lennie, you were ruining stories. I take dat poysonal, y’know?
While the subject of elections is being discussed, like him or not the “Moses of His People,” former State Senator Ernie Newton, will be heard from sooner or later.
Lennie, is there a rumor or two that you’re holding out on us? No kidding?