Thomas MacMIllan Photo
After a three-hour stand-off and the intercession of the city’s top lawyer, the city clerk’s office allowed a Republican state Senate campaign to take out 1,000 absentee ballot applications.
The stand-off began shortly after 1 p.m. Tuesday when a staffer for the Steven R. Mullins’ campaign for the 10th State Senate District seat came into the clerk’s office asking for 1,000 absentee ballot applications. Mullins faces Democrat Gary Holder-WInfield in a Feb. 25 special election for the seat recently vacated by Mayor Toni Harp; the heavily Democratic district covers about half of New Haven as well as a slice of West Haven.
Mullins’ request for the ballot applications was at first denied. Smart said later that the office had never received a request for so many applications and wanted to handle it properly.
The campaign staffer (at right in photo; he declined to identify himself) refused to leave without 1,000 applications, saying that the law was on his side. It took three hours and a consultation with city Corporation Counsel Victor Bolden (at left in photo) before the clerk’s office handed over the applications.
That was long enough for Mullins (pictured), a Republican, to cry “corruption.” He said the office was conspiring to prevent him from prevailing in the election.
The incident was the latest in several controversies that have cropped around Michael Smart since even before took the city clerk job. Shortly after he assumed the post, he issued an illegal memo preventing his staff from handing out documents. He also issued a gag order to prevent them from talking to the press. Smart’s campaign for the city clerk spot is the subject of an ongoing state investigation into allegations of absentee-ballot fraud.
Campaigns can pick up absentee ballot applications during an election and distribute them to potential voters, who can fill them out to receive an absentee ballot in the mail.
The clerk’s office denied two Mullins campaign requests for 1,000 ballot applications. The first time, on Friday, a member of the campaign asked for 1,000, was offered 25, and left. The second time, Tuesday, a different staffer made the request, this time armed with a copy of a state law that he said compels the clerk to hand them over. The staffer declined to give his name.
The law is silent on just how many applications can be requested or handed out.
Armed with law books, attorney Bolden arrived at the clerk’s office at about 3 p.m.
The Mullins staffer told Bolden that a request for 1,000 applications is routine in other towns. “We do this all the time for elections,” he said.
“We’ll figure it out, one way or another,” Bolden promised.
“I want to leave here with 1,000,” the Mullins staffer said.
“We’ll see what we can do,” Bolden said. He said he was still trying to reach the secretary of the state’s office for clarification on the statute.
After a huddle with Smart, Bolden offered 100 applications. “We don’t have 1,000,” Bolden said.
You don’t need 1,000 hard copies, the Mullins staffer said. “We’ll print them off.” All he needed was the numbers to put on them, he said. All absentee ballot applications have a unique number.
Bolden said the statute is simply unclear on what the procedure is. “I’m not trying to stonewall you,” he said. “I’m not trying to deny anyone anything. I just want to hear from the secretary of state’s office.”
Bolden returned to Smart’s personal office.
Meanwhile, former City Hall staffer Matt Smith came in and picked up 25 absentee ballot applications. Smith is the treasurer for Abby Roth’s campaign for the open Ward 7 alder seat.
At about 3:45 p.m. Bolden, emerged and told the Mullins staffer that he could have a blank application to photocopy and a set of 1,000 numbers — 48,400 to 49,399 — to use on them.
“I just wanted to figure out what the procedure was,” Bolden said. The office had never handled a request so large before, and didn’t have 1,000 applications on hand, he said.
“We had a question about the number of applications,” Smart (pictured) said.
“We reached out to the secretary of the state” for “clarity” about the process for handing out that many, Smart said.
“It shouldn’t have taken him three hours,” said Mullins. “It took us about five minutes in West Haven. I would think that the New Haven city clerk’s office was just as advanced.” Mullins said his campaign got 750 ballot applications from the West Haven clerk’s office, instantly.
“This only proves the level of corruption they’re going to put out there to make sure that we do not have a fighting chance,” Mullins said. “We’re watching them. It’s just corruption, corruption, corruption no matter who’s there.”
Mullins said the incident just shows the need for a “watchdog” like himself.
Asked why he needs so many absentee ballot applications, Mullins said it’s because of the “crazy weather.”
In a winter election, “we don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. People may have trouble getting to the polls in a blizzard. “We want to be prepared. We want to give everyone the opportunity to vote and get out to the polls.”