Connecticut is unique among the 50 states in how we run elections — and not in a good way. I have proposed professionalizing election administration in Connecticut by restructuring the office of registrar.
Denise Merrill
Denise Merrill served as Connecticut’s secretary of the state from 2011 to 2022. Before becoming SOTS, Merrill represented Mansfield in the Connecticut House of Representatives for two decades, where she served as house majority leader.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Modernize elections, but not the Secretary of the State’s way
The Registrars of Voters Association of Connecticut recognizes that there are things we must do to improve in the way elections are administered in Connecticut, but disagrees with the Secretary of the State’s proposal. For instance, we would like to see an election night reporting system that is automated, and doesn’t rely on the hundreds of hand calculations done by weary poll workers late into the evening on Election Day.
Posted inPolitics
Secretary of the State Merrill: CT must overhaul elections system
A countdown began Wednesday toward a debate over scrapping Connecticut’s unique system of relying on locally elected registrars of voters, one for each major party, to carry out elections in all 169 cities and towns.
Posted inPolitics
Connecticut voters defeat early voting measure
Connecticut voters have rejected an amendment to the state’s constitution giving the General Assembly power to consider allowing early and expanded absentee voting.
Posted inPolitics
Judge orders two Hartford polls to stay open an extra half hour
Updated 5:53 p.m.
Two Hartford polling places will stay open an extra half hour tonight, until 8:30, a Hartford Superior Court judge has ruled. Judge Carl Schuman’s order came after a number of Hartford polling places reported delayed openings this morning, preventing some voters in the overwhelmingly Democratic capital city from casting ballots.
Posted inPolitics
CT voters to decide whether to scrap 19th Century voting restrictions
It began as an effort to allow Civil War soldiers who were far from home to cast ballots in state and local elections, but that provision in Connecticut’s constitution has also kept voters from enjoying the rights shared by voters in 34 other states to cast an early ballot. Connecticut voters will now decide whether to allow the state legislature to amend the state’s restrictions on absentee or early voting.
Posted inPolitics
It’s not just the GOP primary on Aug. 12
Republicans go the polls in a statewide primary on Aug. 12 to pick the top of their ticket. But the secretary of the state announced Tuesday there also are 20 other primaries for state legislative and probate nominations — eight involving Democratic legislative incumbents whose careers are on the line.
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On third try, Foley wins public financing for campaign
It took three tries and another round of fundraising, but Republican Tom Foley’s application for the public financing of his campaign for governor was approved Wednesday by the State Elections Enforcement Commission.
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A primer on public financing of campaigns in Connecticut
Tom Foley makes his third try today to qualify for public financing, suddenly a make or break step for candidates in the race for governor. Here’s how the program works.
Posted inPolitics
Merrill is 1st statewide candidate to get public financing in ’14
Secretary of the State Denise Merrill on Wednesday became the first statewide candidate to qualify for public financing in 2014 as the State Elections Enforcement Commission approved grants for her and seven legislative candidates.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy re-nominated, won’t let GOP ‘short-change Connecticut’
Connecticut Democrats poured into their state convention Friday, pledging that whatever it lacked in drama it would make up for in passion. The more than 1,800 delegates at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford re-nominated Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who vowed to battle energetically for a second term.
Posted inPolitics
Vote twice? In Connecticut there’s no law against trying
Connecticut election law has a loophole that the state’s top elections’ official wants closed: It is a felony to vote twice in the same election, but trying and failing is no crime.
Posted inPolitics
Register online? Connecticut’s got an app for that
Connecticut became the 15th state Tuesday to launch a web application that allows residents to register to vote.
Posted inPolitics
Nearly 3,000 used new same-day voter registration law in Connecticut
Connecticut’s first experience with election-day voter registration allowed 2,900 voters across the state to register and vote on election day last fall, high-profile mayoral races in New Haven and New Britain drawing the highest number of new voters.
Posted inPolitics
Lembo files for re-election
Comptroller Kevin Lembo is filing papers Tuesday to create a candidate committee, a legal step that makes him a candidate for re-election in 2014 and allows him to begin raising $100 in qualifying contributions for public financing.