Members of the Connecticut State Elections Enforcement Commission met on Wednesday to discuss the operations and structure of that investigatory body, but one issue, in particular, dominated the conversation: the agency’s lack of funding and staff.
The SEEC has been in the public spotlight since last year after Bridgeport’s Democratic mayoral primary resulted in widespread allegations of absentee ballot fraud and a state judge overturning the results of that election.
It fell to the SEEC and its small team of investigators to review a mountain of complaints that sprung up following that election, which Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim won on the strength of absentee ballots after losing the in-person vote count.
Last week, the agency referred two of more than 30 Bridgeport cases it is investigating to the Chief State’s Attorney for potential criminal prosecution.
But Michael Brandi, the SEEC’s executive director, told the agency’s commissioners that the current case load threatened to overwhelm the five investigators available to probe election-related complaints.
“Bridgeport has sapped us of our resources,” said Brandi, who has served as the executive director of the SEEC since 2012.
Brandi delivered a similar message to the General Assembly earlier this year when he explained to state lawmakers that four of the SEEC’s five investigators were dedicated solely to the election scandal in Bridgeport, which left just one formerly-retired staffer to probe other complaints that continue to come in from other parts of the state.
Several of the commissioners questioned Brandi during the meeting Wednesday about the historical staffing levels at the SEEC, and what was preventing the agency from hiring more staff.
In response, Brandi said that for more than a decade the agency has maintained around 35 full-time positions, including investigators, attorneys, technology positions and account examiners, who review the various campaign finance records that the agency is also responsible for policing and auditing.
The main impediment to boosting those staffing numbers, Brandi said, is state lawmakers.
Brandi told the commissioners that he intends to use the current election scandal in Bridgeport to try to “coax” lawmakers into funding more investigators and account examiners in the agency.
But he said his past attempts at requesting additional funding from the legislature have felt like butting his head against a wall.
The legislature’s resistance to boosting the staffing for the SEEC, Brandi suggested, isn’t helped by the fact that the agency’s investigatory powers can be turned on the very lawmakers who approve their annual budget.
“They want us to do our job, but they don’t want us to do it that well,” Brandi said.
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers voiced disappointment and outrage over last year’s election scandal in Bridgeport, which included city surveillance footage of Democratic Party officials and candidates for local elected office allegedly dumping stacks of absentee ballots into drop boxes ahead of the election.
Lawmakers have since proposed a list of potential changes to how absentee balloting is conducted and how election-related crimes are investigated and prosecuted. That includes mandatory prison sentences for people who are convicted of illegally handling another voter’s absentee ballot.
But there are no current plans in the General Assembly to increase the resources and manpower of the SEEC, even as it deals with one of the largest investigations in the agency’s history.
House Speaker Matthew Ritter, D-Hartford, told members of the media last month that the disputes over how to amend the state’s biannual budget meant that it was unlikely Brandi and the employees at SEEC would get any more help this year.
“I would caution people that if it’s not already in year two of the budget we adopted, it’s going to be difficult,” Ritter said.