Statute Conflict Questions Clarified At Ballot Lottery

By John Voket

A co-founder and council candidate with the local political committee the Independent Party of Newtown (IPN) said his organization is assessing an opinion from the Connecticut Secretary of the State’s office that was rendered during a ballot lottery on Wednesday. In an e-mail response to questions raised during the lottery, Gary Davis said the IPN had questions regarding the number of school board candidates his organization could potentially win on the Board of Education this November.

“I did have discussions with the town’s Registrar of Voters and the Secretary of the State’s office to clarify how state statutes and our charter are being interpreted regarding whether IPN candidates, if they received enough votes to win the three seats up for election, would be allowed to be seated on the Board of Education,” Mr Davis said in his correspondence.

Mr Davis said the IPN was proceeding with an interpretation of the town charter that states no one party can have more than three seats on the Board of Ed.

“As IPN currently does not have anyone serving on the Board of Ed and is offering three candidates for election, it would seem that all three IPN candidates would be able to win those seats if they received enough votes,” said Mr Davis.

After seeking clarification by the Secretary of the State through the Registrar of Voters office, Mr Davis was informed that office’s interpretation of the statute prevents any one party to earn all three seats on the Board of Ed in this election.

“We are now assessing that opinion,” Mr Davis said. “We have three great candidates running for the Board of Ed, and we will do what we can to ensure as many of them as possible win in November.”

Registrar LeReine Frampton, who conducted the ballot lottery with fellow registrar Karen Aurelia, said she understood the overarching rule allowed “not more than two from one party.”

“The independent party asked for a clarification,” Ms Frampton said, explaining that while each election cycle seats half the school board, and no more than half of those six candidates can represent any party or be unaffiliated, the statute dictates the ballot makeup in this election cycle.

“Only up to one Democrat can win [a school board seat], up to two Republicans can win, and up to two IPN candidates can win,” Ms Frampton said. “And each party decided to put up the maximum allowable three candidates, as they are permitted to do.”

This election cycle for the school board is an anomaly because the Democrats must fill a party vacancy created when Thomas Gissen resigned following his and his wife’s arrest on alcohol violations in connection with a May post-prom party at their home. That nominee, Anna Wiedemann, will fulfill the remaining two years of what would have been Mr Gissen’s four-year term.

Ms Frampton said each local election cycle switches between electing one GOP or one Democrat to the school board. This process assures the board fulfills the minority stipulation in the charter, while also remaining consistent with state law.

“If three IPN candidates were seated in 2007, they could not qualify to run any candidates in 2009,” Ms Frampton said

Mr Davis contends the IPN has taken the appropriate steps to successfully place candidates on the ballot for Legislative Council, Board of Education, and Police Commission.

“We are now getting into matters of interpretation of state statutes and how they interplay with the town charter in dealing with something that had not been fully considered before, which is a valid, credible third political party fielding candidates,” Mr Davis said.

At press time, Ms Frampton was expecting to receive a fax copy of the statute to provide to the IPN representatives.

“During the lottery, I was on a conference call with several lawyers from the state,” she said. “We don’t want a problem with the ballot.”

That drawing of names determines the order in which multiple candidates for particular offices will be listed in horizontal fashion on the November ballot. Besides attempting to address the IPN questions, the registrars said the ballot lottery went well.

“It was 100 percent legal and 100 percent smooth,” Ms Frampton said.