Paul Bass Photo
The Ward 7 line to vote on Election Day.
After watching an Election Day that resembled an episode of “Keystone Kops,” downtown and Wooster Square neighbors are calling for a public hearing into how the city’s registrar of voters office screwed up so badly.
The executive board of the Downtown Wooster Square Community Management Team issued the call in a letter to Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker.
The letter called for the board to hold a hearing to examine “the voting process in New Haven in 2016, with the goal of improving it going forward.”
“Voting is a foundation of democracy. If the voting process is flawed, for example by extraordinarily long lines or incorrect information provided about voting location, it risks disenfranchising voters. Many people, because of family or work commitments, simply cannot unexpectedly spend two hours voting,” the letter argued.
Click here to read the letter.
The management team executive board, chaired by Wooster Square activist Peter Webster, includes former Downtown Alder Abby Roth, as well as Anstress Farwell of the Urban Design League, Aaron Goode, Erin Gustafson, Charles Murphy, Fortney Stark, and Caroline Smith. (Board of Alders President Walker did not return calls seeking comment on the letter.)
As reported in these articles, the registrar’s office’s mistakes helped lead to hours-long waits to vote, polling places without ballots, and a week-long delay in tabulating official results. The office’s disarray also prompted a last-minute visit from the Secretary of State and emergency help from the mayor’s office to prepare for the expected rush of people registering to vote on Election Day. (New Haven’s registrars failed to participate in three trainings held by the state.) Even with the emergency help, people waited in line for hours, and 50 potential voters were turned away.
Under state law, the local registrar’s office is responsible for hiring, training, and managing moderators at each New Haven polling place, then tabulating the official results of the vote.
The Democratic and Republican positions for registrar of voters are elected, but voters don’t have a chance to avoid electing them. State law guarantees that both the Democrats and Republicans have a registrar in each city or town. It’s really up to party town committees to choose the “candidates.” The Democratic registrar, Shannel Evans, who took office in January, runs the office; this was the first general election she oversaw. As an independently elected official, she does not report to the mayor or to the secretary of the state, Connecticut’s top elections official.
Connecticut law does not provide for recall elections. Citizens do have one recourse: filing complaints with the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC).
Under a statute passed in 2015, the secretary of the state can also seek removal of a registrar through the SEEC. Section 4 of Public Act 15 – 224 reads: “Whenever the Secretary of theState is of the opinion that a registrar of voters has engaged in misconduct, wilful and material neglect of duty or incompetence in the conduct of such registrar’s office, the Secretary may seek removal of such registrar from office by filing a statement in writing to that effect with the State Elections Enforcement Commission. Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision (2) of subsection (g) of section 9 – 7a of the general statutes, as amended by this act, not later than thirty days after the filing of such statement, the commission shall investigate such statement and render a determination of whether the matter should be referred to the Attorney General to request that he or she pursue such removal pursuant to this section. Upon referral from the commission of such matter, the Attorney General may request that the commission undertake such further investigation as he or she deems appropriate. If the Attorney General concludes that the commission’s investigation so warrants, he or she may prepare a citation in the name of the state commanding such registrar of voters to appear before a judge of the Superior Court at a date named in the citation and show cause, if any, why such registrar of voters should not be removed from office.”
Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said Sunday she’s waiting until the final certification of Connecticut election results on Nov. 30 before weighing in on problems that occurred at the local level on Nov. 8. Her office certifies registrars and can fine them but cannot by law remove them from office.
“Abysmal Planning”
Fuentes arrives with fresh ballots to Wilbur Cross High School, where moderators ran out.
The letter from the Downtown Wooster Square Community Management Team supplies details about disarray in the voting process.
“There were two hour waits at 200 Orange Street [the Ward 7 polling place] for much of the morning on November 8. This was a result of abysmal planning. There was one list with voter names when voting opened in the morning, for a ward with over 5,500 registered voters. The fact that the monitor for the location overslept did not help matters. There was no signage explaining what line people were to be in at 200 Orange Street, once a decision was made to photocopy the voter list and make two lines. And the lines were of significantly unequal lengths,” the letter states.
“At Conte / West Hills School, there were long lines at 8:00 am while many poll workers stood around eating bagels and not assisting….
“Only three regular employees of the Registrar’s Office plus a staff person from Corporation Counsel were available to answer the constantly ringing phones on November 8, resulting in many unanswered calls….
“When asked about the poor preparation, the Democratic Registrar was dismissive, seemingly not appreciating that as an elected official she is accountable to the public, especially when she failed in properly executing her responsibilities.”
The letter also notes that thousands of voters received postcards from the registrar’s office with incorrect information on where to vote for the presidential primary.
Evans has repeatedly refused to answer questions from the Independent about all the confusion and any plans to fix problems.
The management team letter calls for alders to quiz the registrars at the requested hearing, to discuss any remedies, to explore the idea of appointing rather than electing registrars (and perhaps making the office regional), and to seek ways to enable citizens to volunteer more effectively.
Saying “we failed the voters,” New Haven State Rep. Roland Lemar called for professionalizing the office in the wake of the debacle. Secretary of the State Merrill said Sunday that four years ago she promoted legislation to do that, by moving from two elected registrars per municipality to one appointed registrar. But the bill failed in the legislature.
Mayor Toni Harp said after the election that the city needs to figure out, in advance, how to make the system work better next time. She recommended calling in a “LEAN” consultant — a reference to a process manufacturers use to make their systems more efficient. New Haven’s democracy could use the same help, she said.
One election that passed without controversy or confusion on Nov. 8 was … the “election” for registrars of voters. Evans was elected to a four-year term.