Connecticut lawmakers are considering two pieces of legislation that would dramatically increase the state’s oversight of local election officials and implement new rules surrounding absentee balloting and curbside voting. The two bills are a direct response to an ongoing election scandal in Bridgeport, which resulted in the city’s 2023 Democratic mayoral primary being overturned in court and five Democratic officials being charged with more than 150 election-related crimes, including mishandling absentee ballots. That primary contest placed Bridgeport and Connecticut at the center of a national debate surrounding absentee voting and election fraud and generated calls for change to the state’s electoral systems. State legislators on the Government Administration and Elections Committee held a public hearing on Friday to solicit input on the newly proposed bills — SB 1515 and 1516 — which lawmakers hope will increase oversight and cut down on alleged election fraud. SB 1515 is focused heavily on increasing state oversight of local town clerks and registrar of voters, the people who actively manage the state’s voting precincts and absentee voting process. Meanwhile, segments of SB 1516 are aimed at fixing problems that were highlighted in the election complaints and criminal charges stemming from Bridgeport’s 2023 primary. Lawmakers are proposing, for instance, to create a setback distance from curbside voting locations and to make it illegal for any political candidate to sit in a vehicle with a voter while they cast a ballot using curbside voting equipment. That change is a direct response to a complaint filed against Bridgeport city councilman Alfredo Castillo, who was seen in a car with voters while they filled out their ballots and was later captured on camera soliciting votes from people who were waiting in line to utilize curbside voting. Lawmakers are also seeking to ban anyone who is found guilty of an election-related crime from circulating candidate petitions or applications for absentee ballots for up to 12 years. That proposal is also focused on correcting problems in Bridgeport, where there is a long history of candidates, campaign operatives and party officials being charged with voter fraud and absentee ballot abuse. Seven people are facing criminal charges tied to Bridgeport’s 2019 and 2023 Democratic primaries. Two of those people, Castillo and Bridgeport’s Democratic Town Committee vice chairwoman Wanda Geter-Pataky, have been accused of illegally taking possession of voters’ absentee ballots in both of those elections. This is not the first time that state officials have proposed changes to Connecticut’s election laws or the state’s investigatory process due to allegations arising from Bridgeport. Lawmakers passed several reforms last year, including mandating surveillance cameras at ballot drop box locations and speeding up investigations into allegations of election-related crimes. But the bills under consideration this year could take the state’s oversight of elections to a completely new level. One of the bills under consideration, SB 1515, would create a state-run entity, known as Municipal Election Accountability Board, which would be responsible for overseeing the local election offices in Connecticut’s 169 towns. If the proposed law passed, the board would be empowered to monitor the work of town clerks and registrar of voters in municipalities where there are complaints about the administration of elections. And in serious cases, the oversight board would have the authority to take direct control of voting and voter registration in those municipalities. Some critics believe that is exactly what is needed in Bridgeport at the moment. John Gomes, who challenged Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim during the 2023 Democratic primary, asked the Connecticut Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas last month to play a bigger role in managing Bridgeport’s local elections. And he pointed to the recent criminal complaint filed against Geter-Pataky to argue that Bridgeport’s local election officials could not be trusted to run the city’s voting systems. Gomes cited an interaction mentioned in the criminal complaint in which two Bridgeport town clerk employees allowed Geter-Pataky to insert an absentee ballot into a tote they were using to empty a ballot drop box. Joshua Diaz and Christina Resto, the two town clerk employees, did not respond to repeated messages from The Connecticut Mirror asking about that interaction, and the two have not been accused of any election-related crime. Even so, Gomes and other Bridgeport residents are now using the interaction to question the “neutrality” of Bridgeport’s local election offices. Thomas responded to Gomes’ letter by explaining that her office has no authority to take permanent control of Bridgeport’s elections. She said the only way state officials could do that is through a new law. “Our office lacks any authority to install a permanent presence in the office of themunicipal clerk in the manner you have suggested as it exceeds the authority granted to the Secretary,” Thomas wrote. It’s yet to be seen whether there will be enough support in the legislature this year to create the proposed Municipal Election Accountability Board. But at least one lawmaker has already said they would not be in favor of the state running local election offices. In an interview earlier this month, Rep. Antonio Felipe, D-Bridgeport, said he is in support of the state reauthorizing an election monitor to advise local officials in Bridgeport, like they did last year. But he has serious reservations about the state seizing control over the polling locations, absentee ballots, early voting and voter registration in Bridgeport. “Maybe people think it’s important that we figure out what our own folks are doing in our town clerk’s office, as well as our registrars of voters, but it’s up to us to run our own elections,” Felipe said. Felipe pointed out that the town clerk and registrars of voters are elected positions, and he said Bridgeport residents can vote for someone else to run those offices if they have concerns about the way they manage the city’s elections. “If people think there’s a problem with the leadership, then they need to elect different leadership,” Felipe said. “It’s not a matter of having a state entity come over and take over an election.” ...read more read less