Four challengers vying to unseat Luke Bronin as mayor of Hartford next month stood together on Monday to call for a state investigation into alleged problems with the September primary election.
Outside city hall, candidates Giselle “Gigi” Jacobs, Aaron Lewis, J. Stan McCauley and former Mayor Eddie Perez argued an inaccurate voter registry, election day errors and misinformation are at best confusing numerous residents and at worst preventing people from casting ballots altogether.
Attorney Cynthia Jennings, a former city council member who supported Perez’s comeback campaign this year, announced she is collecting statements from residents who experienced problems registering or voting, and will be filing complaints with the State Elections Enforcement Commission this week. Jennings served on the city council in 2015 when the body opened an investigation into problems with the 2014 general election, including late-opening polls and missing absentee ballots. A council committee found that “serious errors plagued the administration of the 2014 General Election,” causing “the disenfranchisement of Hartford voters and, even several months later, a lack of an accurate vote count.”
Now, she said, some voters on the “inactive” registry appear to have been denied the opportunity to vote, despite the fact that they are eligible.
Leading up to the Nov. 5 election, the mayoral candidates will also be hosting screenings of the 2019 movie “Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook,” which explores recent efforts to limit voter participation across the country.
“Voter suppression is real — voter intimidation, voter frustration, voter confusion,” Lewis, an education advocate and CEO of The Scribe’s Ink publishing service, said. “We believe we owe it to people to educate them about what’s actually going on in the system.”
Jacobs, who owns cleaning company Sister Soldier Environmental Services, said it would take more than a few people standing outside city hall to make a difference.
“Our vote is the most sacred right that we have,” Jacobs said. “Blood has been shed for us to have the right to vote and we need to not be prevented from having our right to vote.
McCauley said he’s voted in every Hartford race since Thirman Milner was elected mayor in 1981. For the first time in September, McCauley went to cast his vote and the poll workers couldn’t find his name. It took some prodding for the workers to verify McCauley was registered to vote in the primary election.
“You hear of these things. It’s different when it is actually happening to you,” said McCauley, a Democrat who is running for mayor with the Republican nomination. “The government should be bending over backwards to make sure voters have a voice, not bending over backwards to hinder voters’ ability to speak out.”
Lewis and Perez, who lost the primary election to Bronin, both noted that efforts to limit voter participation have a greater impact on people of color. In the last decade, several states have passed laws restricting voter registration drives and reducing or eliminating Election Day registration and early voting, all of which are used heavily by Hispanic and black voters.
Bronin commented Monday, “I want as many people as possible to vote in Hartford, and I’m a strong supporter of Election Day registration, no-excuse absentee voting, and early voting — and we’ve worked hard to encourage all voters to vote, no matter whom they support.”
While Connecticut hasn’t enacted those kinds of measures, there are other forces at work in Hartford deterring residents from voting, said Jennings. Residents are improperly moved to the city’s inactive voter list, and wrongly removed altogether, she says. People submit voter registration forms, then learn at the polls that their names were never added to the list. And poll workers make mistakes, like turning away ex-offenders who are on probation, even though they can legally vote in Connecticut.
Jennings wants the State Elections Enforcement Commission to study Hartford’s inactive voter list and the voter complaints recorded on primary day by poll moderators. She’s organizing the anti-voter suppression push with state Rep. Minnie Gonzalez, who agreed this year to pay a decade-old fine for elections law violations, though she denies any wrongdoing. SEEC imposed the fine in 2009 after ruling that Gonzalez was present at Hartford’s city hall when four voters were completing their absentee ballots for the election in her district.
Gonzalez also faces two complaints from 2018 that allege she intimidated a voter and following her opponent’s canvassers in a truck blaring music and political ads.
Rebecca Lurye can be reached at rlurye@courant.com.
