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Parties squabble over Election Day tactics
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| With Democrats in clear violation, they point to Republicans |
Written by Justin Reynolds
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Wilton Bulletin
© Copyright 2009 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers. All Rights Reserved.
Published On November 4, 2009
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Against the rules? A cheap election tactic? A simple demonstration?
Whatever it was, some Wilton Democrats spoke out against Wilton Republicans who handed out sample ballots — with all the bubbles for Republican candidates filled in — to voters outside each of the town’s three voting districts on Tuesday. The sample ballot handed out by the Republicans did not provide any language showing the Republicans paid for the copies or were responsible for them.
“All we are doing is demonstrating to the voters that the ballot has two sides to it, where the question on the ballot lie and explain how the ballot works,” said Al Alper, chair of the Republican Town Committee. “If anyone listens to any of our people handing out the ballots, we don’t promote a candidate, we don’t even mention which party we’re from.”
Democrats had initially considered filing a formal complaint with the State Election Enforcement Commission, but later decided against doing so, as they said they didn’t want to get into a fight with the Republicans.
In either case, John Kalamarides, chair of the Democratic Town Committee, said the Republicans’ actions were strange.
“Frankly, I was surprised that they were handing out ballots that were filled in with the Republican spots on a sample basis,” Mr. Kalamarides said. “That surprised me — that they were doing it so freely.”
Mr. Alper said all the Republicans did was download the sample ballot from the town’s Web site, adding their own touch by filling in the answers.
“How could you properly show somebody a sample without giving somebody sample answers,” Mr. Alper said. “If you were getting a sample quiz, there would be bubbles filled in. It’s incomplete as a sample because not everyone could clearly see how to fill in the bubbles. We believe in educating the public on the electoral process and the way the ballot works.”
Earlier Tuesday, when the Democrats were still considering filing a complaint, Mr. Alper protested.
“I believe that the DTC is incorrect in their interpretation of the law,” Mr. Alper said, adding advertisements taken out on The Bulletin’s Web site did not contain langauge attributing the funding of the advertisements to the Democrats. “It’s clear that the DTC doesn’t know the law or they would have had that attribution.”
According to Connecticut General Statute 9-621, “no candidate or committee shall make or incur any expenditure for any written, typed or other printed communication, or any web-based, written communication, which promotes the success or defeat of any candidate’s campaign for nomination at a primary or election or solicits funds to benefit any political party or committee” unless the communication is attributed to a source.
“We encourage them to go back and review the language of the law before they file a claim,” he said.
Christine Stuart of the Web site CT News Junkie reported that Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz received the first complaint on Election Day from Wilton, “where voters complained about a candidate sign which could be seen from inside the polling place. The sign was on a truck outside of the 75-foot-boundary line, so even though it was within view, it wasn’t in violation of state election laws,” according to secretary of the state spokesman Av Harris.
Registrars of Voters Tina Gardner and Carole Young-Kleinfeld confirmed the sign issue in question and the inquiry later made by Ms. Young-Kleinfeld after election officials at the high school polling place wondered about it.
State laws prohibit campaigning activity from a 75-foot radius from the entrance to the polls but do not address how far outside that radious a sign must be if it is visible from a window, the registrars noted. The attorney at the secretary of the state office said that the Wilton election official’s call was his first call of the day — 6:30 a.m., the registrars noted in an e-mail message Wednesday morning. “He thought that this was an ‘interesting’ question, maybe because most of the state’s polling places are dark dreary places, unlike the Clune Center lobby. I guess it hasn’t come up before and certainly isn’t addressed in the statutes,” noted Ms. Young-Kleinfeld.
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