Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas has apologized for making a reference to Nazi Germany’s SS in denouncing President Donald J. Trump’s executive order on ballot access to a bipartisan audience of registrars of voters. “Let me be very, very clear here. I was NOT likening any person to members of the SS and agree that I should have not said that. It was hyperbolic,” Thomas wrote in an email Monday to ROVAC, the Registrars of Voters Association of Connecticut. She made the SS reference while addressing ROVAC’s annual spring conference last week while discussing her objections to Trump’s executive order on elections that, among other things, would require proof of citizenship to vote.  “I understand if my comments made you feel something that was not my intent.  Because it wasn’t my intent, you have my apologies if you felt personally attacked,” Thomas wrote. “That could not be further from my goal.” The inspiration for the SS reference, she said in an interview Tuesday, was a section of Trump’s executive order that seemed to her to be encouraging citizens to inform on election officials who wrongly register someone. “A private citizen can turn you in for making a mistake,” Thomas told ROVAC, according to an audio recording posted Tuesday afternoon on YouTube by House Republicans. “I’m probably going too far, but it sounds little bit like the SS to me.” Thomas said in her written apology that a trip to Germany left an impression of how a regime turned citizens against each other. “I was always struck by something I read there — about the large percentage of the population that were informal informants who passed along tips to the Gestapo with no evidence. The language in the EO which requires the passing along of ‘suspects’ to the DOJ sounded similar to me,” she wrote. In the interview, Thomas said she referring to Section 5a of the executive order. It says, in part: “The Attorney General shall take all appropriate action to enter into information-sharing agreements, to the maximum extent possible, with the chief State election official or multi-member agency of each State. These agreements shall aim to provide the Department of Justice with detailed information on all suspected violations of State and Federal election laws discovered by State officials…” Thomas said Tuesday she apologized for the language she employed but not her opposition to the executive order she calls an unnecessary barrier to ballot access, given the extreme rarity of voting by noncitizens. The rhetoric was a departure for Thomas, a Democrat who generally has charted an independent path on advocating for election laws and resources, breaking with her own party at times. “When I heard about this from registrars, I was really taken aback,” said Ben Proto, the Republican state chairman and a former deputy registrar and member of ROVAC.  Proto noted that Thomas had refrained from the rhetorical “bombs” tossed by other Democrats at Trump, notably Sen. Chris Murphy and Attorney General William Tong. Previous comments by her and a Democratic predecessor, Denise Merrill, to ROVAC tended to be “practical and non-partisan,” he said. Neither the president or president-elect of ROVAC, Democratic Registrar Chris Prue of Vernon and Republican Registrar Barbara Richardson Crouch of Sprague, said they heard the SS reference. But some Republican registrars took it as an insult to them and not just a criticism of Trump’s executive order, and at least one, Lisa Amatruda of Woodbury, walked out. “The venomous language and partisan rhetoric made it impossible to continue listening,” Amatruda wrote in an opinion piece posted on The Connecticut Mirror’s Viewpoints page. House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, said the apology was “half-hearted.” “Democrats have developed a disturbing habit of invoking Nazi comparisons to score political points, a tactic that not only demeans their opponents but also trivializes the horrors of the Holocaust,” Candelora said. Crouch and Prue both were inclined to focus on the nonpartisan task ahead: Ensuring a fair and secure election as they seek guidance on how to implement the executive order, if it survives a legal challenge. “We are non partisan when conducting elections. We try to maintain a good working relationship, and we always do,” Crouch said. “And I know the people that are involved, whether registrars or staff or Secretary Thomas, regardless of what happens, we will focus on having a great municipal election this fall.” The executive order applies only to federal elections, Thomas said. Both Prue and Crouch said the SS reference was inappropriate. Crouch, who grew up in Mississipppi, added, “There are enough references of voting rights we can make about this country.” “All of this is going to be put aside,” she said. “At the end of the day, that is the core story: Regardless of what happens, that will be put aside to make safe and secure elections.” ...read more read less