“The Office of Secretary of the State is charged with safeguarding everyone’s right to vote and I will do everything in my power to ensure open, fair and secure elections. Everyone’s vote must count. “
According to Stamford Plus, Secretary of the State Candidate Jerry Farrell has signed the Commitment for Connecticut from Citizens for Change. Checking both the Citizens for Change site and Farrell’s site, we have been unable to locate copies of the completed, signed commitment form.
We were about to write a post about how little voting and voting integrity discussion we have heard in the Secretary of the State campaigns so far. Yet, yesterday there was a joint appearance/debate between the Democratic Primary candidates Gerry Garcia and Denise Merrill which focused manly on voting issues, including voting integrity
As the Connecticut legislature, Secretary of the State candidates, and our current Secretary of the State contemplate following Florida’s lead in expanding mail-in voting, including considering no-excuse absentee voting, we have this cautionary tale from Florida.
This is another fast-food-like voting issue. We like no excuse absentee voting, just like we enjoy fast, fatty food – the problem is that they both have unintended consequences. Yet, most voters and many eaters are not aware of the known risks.
With a couple of close calls near the deadline, it seems that all the statewide office candidates that wanted to participate in the program have met fundraising criteria.
We applaud the Courant for conducting and making these interviews public. We note a strong emphasis on the elections role of the Secretary of the State (SOTS) – too often we have seen an emphasis by candidates on the business registration aspects of the job. The strong concerns of the Editorial Board seem to be saving money in election administration and increasing turnout. We note however, a shortage of questions and concern on voting integrity, ballot access, serving those with disabilities, and the education of election officials.
Given the time constraints and the alternatives to learning about the candidates, it was a very useful event. Much more informative than the single candidate speaking event. More relevant than the stiffer highly public televised “debates” with canned questions from the mainstream media. There was a lively discussion of a wide range of relevant issues. We would like to see more events like this, with more time for questions, more of the public present and engaged – with all the candidates welcome.
“It is critical that civic engagement in our state continues to thrive and that we have a renewed commitment to growing businesses and creating jobs. Democrats are well-positioned to make sure both of these goals are reached, and I look forward to helping the party in any way that I can.”.
