Possible campaign financing and election violations by Town officials have been referred to the State Election Enforcement Commission (SEEC). After receiving several complaints from citizens, the Registrars of Voters, on the advice of a staff attorney at the SEEC, referred the concerns to the commission for consideration.
Among the complaints is a possible campaign financing violation alleging that First Selectman, Allan Cahill, used the Town website for political purposes in violation of 9-610 which prohibits the “use of public funds by incumbent or for promotional campaign or advertisement”. The First Selectman’s blog, published on the Town website, titled “A Response from Selectman Cahill” and dated October 31, 2021, sought to answer criticisms of his administration and urged residents to “Please vote for me to continue our town’s progress during these challenging times…Vote Row C.”
Other complaints involved Town Clerk Shannon Pearl Haddad, and many of these involved the municipal ballot, which is the Town Clerk’s responsibility to produce. One error was the inclusion of a position on the Planning and Zoning Commission that did not exist. Upon the Town Clerk’s public notice of the opening, a Republican candidate was endorsed for the seat, and a Democratic candidate petitioned onto the ballot to fill the position. Shortly afterwards, however, the Registrars of Voters questioned the vacancy when they noticed discrepancies with PZC appointments, with member Stan Crawford appointed in 2019 filling an unexpired term until 2022, while the term of Gary DeCesare, appointed in 2020, supposedly expired in 2021. The Registrars researched the ordinance and the statute, both of which verified that appointed member serve until the term expires; subsequently, the Office of the Secretary of State confirmed that the position was not up for election. “If the Registrars had not noticed the discrepancy and researched the issue, the voters would have elected someone who could not legally fill the seat, or the appointed person would have relinquished a seat which was lawfully his,” the referral states.
A later version of the ballot failed to reflect the cross-endorsement of Diane Gagnon, candidate for the Board of Education, who received the endorsement of the Republican Town Committee and petitioned on to the Democratic slate. One of the Registrars caught the mistake and interceded prior to its printing. An even later version of the ballot retained the name of candidate Juan Arriola, who had withdrawn from a vacancy seat on the Board of Education in order to remain as a candidate for the four year term. Unfortunately, the Town Clerk ordered the official ballots prior to the deadline for withdrawal, October 12, and the ballots had to be re-ordered on the advice of the Office of the Secretary of State and at considerable cost to taxpayers. Eight absentee ballots containing erroneous information were sent to applicants, and Ms. Haddad did not re-issue corrected ballots, claiming that applicants needed to request and apply for them, contrary to State statute which dictates that the Town Clerk must “promptly mail to each applicant to whom such an absentee ballot has been issued, a correct absentee ballot” along with “a statement explaining the error” and a copy of the relevant statute. The referral noted that both of these errors involved the Board of Education, a seat Ms. Haddad was seeking. There were also discrepancies involving the spelling of one candidate’s names, with official ballots misspelling the name that was spelled correctly on the sample ballots.
A second area of concern involved the issuance of absentee ballots. Ms. Haddad issued ballots to two grand list voters, one of whom was actually registered in town, and the other, William Pearl, who was not. While persons listed on the Grand List as owning at least $1000 worth of property are eligible to cast ballots in referenda regarding financial matters, such as purchases and budgets, only electors can elect. The absentee ballot was rejected, as was another, which the Town Clerk failed to endorse, forcing the absentee ballot counters to reject it. This, too, was included in the referral.
The last concern was that Ms. Haddad performed official duties during the Municipal Election. While Registrars of Voters and Town Clerks can perform their official duties when they’re running for re-election to those offices, they are prohibited from performing election duties when they are running for any other office. Since Ms. Haddad was seeking election to the Board of Education, her assistant should performed the official duties during the Election.
A final referral was submitted jointly by the Registrars of Hampton and Killingly regarding Mr. Pearl, who applied for and submitted an absentee ballot in Hampton on October 12 and voted in Killingly’s Municipal Election on November 2.
The SEEC will review the referral and decide whether or not to conduct an investigation into any of these matters.
Gazette Staff