Top elections official: Dump voter registrars

Denise Merrill, Democratic Connecticut Secretary of the State. Denise Merrill, Democratic Connecticut Secretary of the State. Photo: File Photo Photo: File Photo Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Top elections official: Dump voter registrars 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

HARTFORD -- The state's chief elections official attacked the local political patronage system on Wednesday and proposed the elimination of elected voter registrars in Connecticut towns and cities.

Instead, Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said, trained civil service appointees should replace the elected Republican and Democratic registrars that in recent years have caused embarrassing moments of incompetence and conflict.

Merrill, in a news conference in her Capitol office Wednesday, cited last November's Election Day problems -- including a physical confrontation in Fairfield, as well as the 2010 breakdown in Bridgeport's voter registrars that left the outcome of the gubernatorial election in doubt for days -- as reasons to professionalize local voter offices.

"You will probably remember the 2010 Bridgeport ballot shortage that focused national attention on Connecticut," she said. "Just this November, voters were disenfranchised in Hartford, Fairfield, Naugatuck and several other cities and towns, large and small, due to preventable mistakes. All of this comes from a statewide election administration system that is too political, too expensive and lacks minimum standards of professionalism and accountability. And where there are problems the state or the municipality can do very little to hold people accountable."

Merrill acknowledged, however, that the proposal to the General Assembly will likely be opposed by local politicians and town committees.

"It will be a heavy lift," Merrill, a Democrat, told reporters.

Rep. Richard A. Smith, R-New Fairfield, ranking member of the Government Administration and Elections Committee, which will review the bill in coming weeks, said the bill is a long shot.

"I think it has very little chance," he said. "Do I think we can do things better? Could registrars benefit from some training? Could towns save money by having one registrar instead of two? Certainly."

But he said the current system of registrars from opposing parties in the same office at least balance each other off.

Diane Chase, Republican registrar of voters in Washington, was surprised by Merrill's proposal.

"We belong to ROVAC (Registrar of Voters Association of CT) and every election that we do is conducted by the legal rules for voting," Chase said. "We know our responsibility to the town and the state, and bring honest election results."

Chase said there has never been any question raised by state officials about Washington registrars' handling of municipal or statewide elections.

"There's 169 towns in the state," Chase said. "Just because she (Merrill) had a problem with a handful of cities is no reason to change the system we have today."

Other local registrars also criticized the legislation, saying it would disenfranchise minority political parties and give one official unilateral authority over elections.

"We've had mayors that have gone to jail in Hartford, Waterbury and Bridgeport in the last decade, and nobody says we should get rid of the position of mayor throughout the state," said Fred DeCaro III, Greenwich's Republican registrar and chairman of the Fairfield County chapter of the Registrars of Voters Association of Connecticut. "I don't think individual instances of incompetence on the part of an administrator call for wholesale changes to the system."

In Bridgeport, where a ballot shortage and voting irregularities marred the 2010 election, Merrill's proposal met swift resistance.

"That was an exception," GOP Registrar Linda Grace said of the 2010 issues that preceded her 2011 arrival on the job. "I think that we've worked as a team and put on the elections without issues."

Bridgeport's Democratic registrar, Santa I. Ayala, who was at the center of the 2010 controversy, was not available for comment.

Staff writer Susan Tuz contributed to this story.

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