Hartford Voters Report Slew of Problems at Polls
Hartford voters reported a slew of problems at the four polling locations first thing on Tuesday morning — with no monitors at at least one site and voter registration books missing from others. Because of the problems Gov. Dannel Malloy's campaign is filing a complaint for entended voting hours.
The first voter in line at the South End Senior Center arrived at 6 a.m., when the polls were supposed to open, but it would be an hour before officials in charge were ready and many would-be voters gave up without casting a ballot to get to work on time.
The moderator at the Hartford Seminary polling location in Hartford said they did not have a list for registered voters to check in. Instead, each voter was writing his or her name, address and phone number down on a blank piece of paper and then received a ballot.
One of the four polling places to encounter problems was the senior center on Maple Avenue.
Olga Vázquez, the Democratic Registrar of Voters, said the moderator got very ill and was rushed to the hospital around 3 p.m. on Monday, so they needed a backup moderator and the substitute arrived late.
There was also a computer glitch and the voter list printout did not happen in a timely fashion, which affected four polling stations.
"Throughout the city, the right thing that should have taken place this morning was allow the voter to vote, write their names down and issue a ballot. We don't stop the process, I apologize if people, moderators, election officials, did not recall that in the training from the training put that into practice this morning," Vázquez said.
She said one of the biggest issues was training.
"I need to find out. it goes back to training. When they attended the mandatory training and these situations are addressed in training, so therefore we need to understand that," she said. "The buck stops with the registrars, however every election official (is) mandated to attend training to understand how to deal with emergency situations."
Problems were also reported at the E.B. Kennelly School in Hartford this morning.
"When I came here at 6:30 this morning, they said it was technical difficulties. We couldn’t vote at the time," Delores Allen, of Hartford, said.
Ballot machines are back up and the voter registration books have arrived, voters said.
The registration log had arrived by the time Malloy showed up to vote in Hartford this morning.
"A little mix-up here in Hartford with precincts opening up without lists. That's a little disturbing, but we'll put it in context. There's a lot of people that are going to vote today," he said.
With people voting in 169 municipalities today, there are bound to be some wrinkles, Malloy said.
By late morning, his campaign issued a statement saying they would file a complaint in court for longer voting hours.
"Because of delays and other problems at Hartford polling locations, we are filing a complaint in Hartford Superior Court asking that voting hours be extended to accommodate voters who were unable to vote or were discouraged from voting this morning. Currently the polls in Hartford are working smoothly and voters can cast their ballots. We encourage everyone to vote," a statement from the campaign said.
Malloy said he's been told there were problems at "quite a few" polling locations in Hartford, some allowed affidavit voting, while others did not and some voters were turned away.
"In a community where we get about 90 percent of the vote, that's concerning," Malloy said.
Zak Sanders, communications director for the Republican State Party, said the issues in Hartford were resolved by 7 a.m. and there is still plenty of time to vote by 8 p.m.
Some callers have reported fights at the polls, but police were not aware of any issues.
In addition to the problems in Hartford, one polling site in Wolcott ran low on ballots for a brief time.
Wolcott Republican Registrar Pat Najarian said voter turnout was bigger than expected this morning, with 300 voters coming to the polls by about 8 a.m. About eight people left without voting to get to work, local officials said.
Eyrrell Middle School was down to 50 ballots and more were on the way whether there was a rush.
“We told them to just to wait for a minute or two because we were driving,” she said.
The registrar’s office gave the middle school 500 more ballots instead of 300 because of that rush and resupplied each of the three polling places with ballots already.
Najarian apologized for the problem, which has never happened before, and said she was going to have the polling places call town hall when they’re down to 100 ballots so they can get them there quicker before they run out.
“I think it’s a good day. It’s a big turnout,” she said. “I think it’s great people are coming out.”
This is the second time Malloy and Foley face off in a battle for governorship and a Quinnipiac University poll released shows the race is neck-and-neck, with Malloy getting 47 percent of likely voters and Foley getting 44 percent.
During the last gubernatorial election in 2010, there were voting problems in Bridgeport and days of recounts before Foley conceded to Malloy.
Prior to that election, Bridgeport city elections officials ordered only 21,000 ballots for a city with 69,000 registered voters and several precincts ran out of ballots. As lines grew in the Democratic stronghold, some voters gave up and left.
Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said this morning that she had not heard of any problems.
“If you’re still able to vote please do, and if not, you can come back later,” she said. “I have not heard about this yet. I am on my way to the office though.”
She said her officer typically gets around 5,000 calls on Election Day.
“And sometimes we have a few glitches,” the secretary of the state said.
These are local elections, Merrill said, and she will have to talk to the registrar to see what is going on.
The state offers a telephone hotline for voters to report election fraud and voting rights abuse.
Call 866-733-2463 (1-866-SEEC-INFO) to report suspected violations.
You can also call the SEEC at 860-256-2940 and staff will answer questions, advise on complaint procedures and, if appropriate, request the assistance of state criminal or federal law enforcement authorities in the investigation and possible prosecution of the matter.
Residents can also send an email to elections@ct.gov to communicate with the SEEC and the Secretary of the State’s office on Election Day.
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