The late Judith Beaudreau, a very active registrar of voters from Vernon and longtime mentor of Newtown’s Democratic Registrar LeReine Frampton, often referred to those local elected officials as the “gatekeepers to democracy.” But those Democratic and Republican gatekeepers may be losing their posts if a new election reform measure from Democratic Secretary of the State Denise Merrill is successful.

Ms Merrill is proposing transforming the office of registrar of voters from a local elected official handpicked by town political committees to a municipal employee appointed locally to administer elections as a nonpartisan professional.

Under the legislative proposal submitted by Ms Merrill to the General Assembly’s Government Administration and Elections Committee, each city and town in Connecticut would have one registrar of voters per municipality in charge of administering elections.

That individual would be hired as a municipal employee, and would need minimum qualifications of at least a bachelor’s degree or four years’ experience in election administration. The registrar would also need to be certified and would be required to undergo yearly training administered by the state on new developments in election administration or new voting technologies.

As a municipal employee, the registrar would have all the support staff necessary, and would be required to follow all state and federal election laws, as well as election directives issued by the secretary of the state.

“The time has come to modernize and professionalize the office of registrar of voters in Connecticut, one that is crucial to empowering our citizens in exercising their right to vote,” said Ms Merrill, Connecticut’s chief elections official. “We have now had two elections in the last four years where Connecticut has made national news for problems on Election Day, and enough is enough.”

The secretary said the state’s elections system overall is good, and on the whole registrars work hard and do a good job.

“But clearly we can do much better,” Ms Merrill said. “How we run elections in Connecticut is too political while lacking professionalism and accountability. These legislative changes are designed to fix that and finally bring election administration in our state into the 21st Century.”

According to the secretary of the state, Connecticut is the only state in the country that leaves election administration to two partisan locally elected officials. And there are no minimal qualifications for Connecticut’s registrars of voters, who are chosen by their local town political committees.

She said the nominee of the major parties for registrar do not run against each other, they are each guaranteed a local position under state law, funded by municipal taxpayers.

Problems And Dysfunction

In addition to the high-profile problems experienced in Bridgeport and Hartford that led to problems at the polls on Election Day in 2010 and 2014, there are constantly reports of dysfunctional relationships locally between registrars of voters of different political parties.

There have been cases of verbal and physical altercations, one registrar locking the other one out of the office, one registrar dominating office functions while the other rarely reports to work, and other troubling issues.

Under current state laws, Ms Merrill says there is also very little that can be done to discipline or hold accountable a registrar of voters who is not doing the job, not complying with state laws, or not acting in a professional manner.

As local elected officials, there is virtually nothing that can be done by the state or even the municipality to require participation with new technological improvements to modernize how elections are conducted, how results are reported, and how vote counts are audited, for instance. As municipal employees, this type of compliance with state and federal laws and fluency with new technologies would be a requirement of the job.

Joanne Albanesi, who recently took over the Newtown Republican registrar’s post from retiring Karen Aurelia, said she is in favor of improving policies and procedures that effect positive results.

“However I believe that the existing system of registrars from the two major parties serves Newtown — and other towns and cities — well,” Ms Albanesi said. “Two registrars bring balance and add blended skills to guarantee the integrity of elections.”

Ms Frampton told The Bee she is ready to fight to maintain accuracy and fairness in elections.

As a registrars office staffer since in 1996, and registrar since 2001, Ms Frampton has worked under three secretaries of the state, and has seen many changes. One of those disappointing changes was the abandonment of a state certification program for voting officials that was taught at Briarwood College in Southington by the late Ms Beaudreau.

Two Training Days

Today, Ms Frampton said, voting officials annually have one day of continuing education taught by fellow registrars and another day of classes by the secretary of the state’s office over the course of two conferences each year.

Ms Frampton also oversaw Newtown’s participation in the pilot program introducing electronic balloting in the state in 2006.

She said Newtown’s voting moderators are fully trained and all local assistants are trained as moderators so there is backup. Unlike the recent debacle in Hartford, Newtown has never run out of ballots — Newtown again had a backup plan so everyone could vote.

“Our lists are always there, our staff is trained, the long lines at a Presidential election where some towns wait hours to vote aren’t occurring in Newtown,” Ms Frampton said.

She said Newtown goes out of the way to find unregistered voters, and recounts — due to close elections — have been done accurately and promptly

Mrs Llodra shared that observation.

“Elections in Newtown have a history of being performed well,” the first selectman said. “Preparations are thorough, staffing is appropriate, costs are contained and controlled, results are reported in a timely fashion — and are accurate, any recounts are executed with professionalism and according to oversight protocols, and the community has been well informed at all steps of every election process.”

Mrs Llodra said Newtown is among the communities that has been served well by the current system.

“However, that present experience should not blind us to the absence of real accountability over local registrars of voters and any meaningful application of quality standards and expectations,” she said.

The first selectman also agreed with the secretary of the state about a lack of practical recourse for registrars’ poor performance, adding, “Any good system learns to not rely solely on persons, but recognizes the important of policy and organizational structure.”      

Legislative concepts submitted by Secretary of the State Merrill to the GAE committee related to strengthening election administration will be contained in a bill to be heard at a public hearing on Monday March 9.