While the Committee of Inquiry — filled with City Council members — is presumably inquiring on matters related to the Hartford Registrars of Voters, others have taken action about alleged problems during the last election, and the one before that.
What Would Constitute a Denial of Voting Rights?
In November 2013, former Hartford resident Julie Beman schlepped all over the city to ensure she voted. She filed a complaint with the State Elections Enforcement Commission against Democratic Registrar of Voters Olga Iris Vasquez and other election officials.
Over one year later, the SEEC completed its investigation and on December 26, 2014, released its findings and conclusions. Ultimately, the complaint was dismissed, but the Commission did find Vasquez “at all times relevant to this complaint.” Still, the resident’s concerns about disparaging remarks made by the Democratic Registrar of Voters were found by the Commission to be uncorroborated and unsubstantiated.
Yet, one of the findings was that the voter registry list at the District 4 polling place had an inconsistency, which contributed to Beman’s experience of initially being prevented from casting her vote. According to the SEEC: “The formatting of the voter registry therefore may have contributed to the confusion and delay that Complainant met with when announcing her name and address” to the election official.
Citing precedence, it was determined that this citizen’s voting rights were not denied: “Prior Commission cases have resulted in a finding of no denial of voting rights where and [sic] elector ultimately casts a ballot despite long delays and/or incompetent elections officials and owing to their own persistence.” Though the Commission recognized this experience may have been “unreasonable, irritating or inconvenient,” Beman was permitted to cast her vote in the 2013 election.
Votes Still Not Counted
David Bedell — who is involved with the Connecticut chapter of the Green Party — has been keeping tabs on whether or not write-in votes get counted. A complaint against the Hartford Registrars of Voters alleged that this did not happen as it should in 2012. In February of last year, the SEEC determined that the Hartford Registrars of Voters needed to “take extra care when overseeing the recording and transmitting of write-in votes in future elections.”
Bedell said that another complaint will be filed, as the same issue emerged during the 2014 election. He indicated that at least one write-in vote was not counted.
