Politics & Government

Absentee Ballots Won't be Mailed Out. Who's at Fault?

Is it the Democratic Town Committee chairwoman for filing an SEEC complaint or town leaders for not complying with state law? Depends who you ask.

Town Clerk's Office employees will be busy preparing for the April 5 budget referendum, issuing absentee ballots over the counter to residents who will not be able to vote in person and processing mailed in ballots voters obtain online.

What they will not be doing, is mailing out absentee ballots to those who call the office to request them.

On Friday, Town Clerk Marsha Beno said she wants to avoid another State Elections Enforcement complaint from Democratic Town Committee Chairwoman Patricia Ulatowski, who claimed the town violated Connecticut General Statute 9-369c in 2009.

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The statute requires a town clerk to have the exact language on a ballot at least three weeks before absentee ballots are mailed out to voters. Beno said the town could not meet that timeline for the April 5 referendum.

"I wish I could mail them," Beno said. "If I weren't concerned that another complaint would be filed and I and the town attorney would have to go to Hartford, I would be mailing them, because I believe every voter should have every opportunity to vote. No voter should be disenfranchised."

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During the last budget referendum, Beno said her office mailed out about 100 absentee ballots. Now a voter or their designee has to come to the office or they could mail in a ballot downloaded online.

Ulatowski says Town Attorney Jack Fracassini, Beno and Town Council leadership are to blame, because they were informed of the State Election Enforcement Commission's decision on her complaint agreeing that the town violated General Statute 9-369c during two referendums in 2009, and could have influenced a speeding up of the budget process to meet the three week deadline to mail out absentee ballots.

Democratic Registrar of Voters Sue Koneff looked at the Town Charter and came up with a schedule that could allow the town to meet the three-week deadline and comply with the state statute, according to Ulatowski.

"I wasn't going to rush our boards when they were doing their due diligence, so I could mail out absentee ballots," Beno said of the Town Council and Board of Finance reviews of the 2011-12 town budget proposal.

When Ulatowski asked her about the 2009 budget referendum process, Beno told her the town has followed the same procedure for decades. In 2009, Beno said town boards met all of the budget approval deadlines outlined in the Town Charter and that she had sought a legal opinion from then town attorney, Fred Martin.

Of absentee ballots being mailed less than three weeks before a vote, Martin told Ulatowski voters already had an expectation of when the referendums would be held. Ulatowski, who is former town clerk of Stratford, was not satisfied.

"I didn’t go for what he was telling me," she said. "He said we don’t want to disenfranchise people. I don’t either, but I want the town to follow the law."

The state law has been on the books since 1987, but Ulatowski is the first person who ever filed a complaint alleging it had not been followed.

Fracassini agreed with the legal interpretation of his predecessor and represented the town in Ulatowski's SEEC complaint.

In a July 28,2010 decision, the SEEC found that Beno did not follow General Statute 9-369c for the first two referendum votes in 2009, though the town followed the deadlines in its Town Charter.

"Moreover, the Respondent (Beno) acted in good faith, including consulting the town attorney to guide her conduct and relying on this advice," the decision says. "... this is not a circumstance where the Commission would seek to impose such a penalty."

The SEEC recommended that Monroe revisit its referendum timeline the next time it considers revising its charter and that the Connecticut General Assembly reexamine the state statute in light of Monroe's case.

Beno said Ulatowski served on Monroe's Charter Revision Commission in 2007 and that revising the budget timeline to comply with the state statute was never an issue.

Ulatowski said she first became concerned that the town was not in compliance with the law in 2009.


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