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Another Candidate for Secretary of the State?

Opponent charges that Mary Glassman might run for Secretary of the State and resign in a year if she is reelected First Selectman, this fall.

Courant: Rough Tactics In Simsbury First Selectman Race <read>

Opponent charges that Mary Glassman might run for Secretary of the State and resign in a year if she is reelected First Selectman, this fall:

Darren Cunningham, the Republican challenger of incumbent First Selectman Mary Glassman, issued a news release Friday calling on Glassman to pledge that, if re-elected on Tuesday, she will serve out her two-year term and not run for higher statewide office.

Cunningham is calling for Glassman to make such a pledge because of an article Thursday in the online newspaper New Haven Independent. In that article, New Haven Mayor John DeStefano said that he is not endorsing a local candidate for Connecticut secretary of the state because he is waiting to hear whether Glassman will be a candidate for that office.

In 2006, while much attention was paid to the Ned Lamont/Joe Lieberman Primary and U.S. Senate election, there was also a hard fought Democratic Primary for Governor and Lieutenant Governor. John DeStefano prevailed over Dan Malloy for Governor, yet Malloy’s choice for Lieutenant Governor, Mary Glassman, prevailed and became DeStafano’s runningmate in the general election. Although they lost, Mary Glassman gained recognition statewide.

Glassman responded during an interview Friday by saying that she was “disappointed” with Cunningham’s news release.

“I’ve worked hard for Simsbury these past two years, and I am looking forward to serving the town over the next two years,” Glassman said. “I have no plans to run for secretary of the state.”

Timely Reminders from Secretary Bysiewicz and CTVotersCount

Referendums and questions are exempt from the Connecticut post-election audit law. However, they are not exempt from the risks of error and fraud.

In a press release, Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz reminds voters of the importance of questions on the November municipal ballots:

“Towns throughout Connecticut are facing some crucial decisions on
schools, local budgets, road repair and other issues, so it is
imperative that voters make their voices heard next Tuesday,” said
Secretary Bysiewicz. “Local elections are enormously important for
determining the future direction of all of our communities.”

CTVotersCount reminds voters and the legislature that:

Referendums and questions are exempt from the Connecticut post-election audit law. However, they are not exempt from the risks of error and fraud. The post-election audit law needs to be strengthened is several ways; including subjecting all critical ballots and contests to be subject to selection for audit; and all ballots and contests are critical.

For more information: FAQ: Why Would Anyone Steal A Referendum?

Another Candidate for Secretary Of The State

Gerry Garcia, a financial adviser, who was 9th Ward alderman from 1996 to 2001, promised to be “a new voice to speak on behalf of Connecticut voters and small businesses.”

New Haven Register: Ex-alderman eyes Bysiewicz’s post <read>

A former Democratic alderman is the first person in Connecticut to declare his candidacy for secretary of the state.

Contrary to the story, he is not “the first person”. Looking at the SEEC site we see two others who have declared their candidacy and have been listed there for several months. Republicans Richard Abbate and Corey Brinson. Also on the list is Rep James Spallone’s exploratory committee which we understand is for Secretary of the State (see Update below for another exploratory candidate, Rep Kevin Roldan).

Gerry Garcia, a financial adviser, who was 9th Ward alderman from 1996 to 2001, promised to be “a new voice to speak on behalf of Connecticut voters and small businesses.”…

Garcia has promised to work to make Connecticut an early voting state, which would allow citizens to send in a paper ballot during a limited period leading up to Election Day. Ballots are now available only to those who will be out of town on Election Day.

Garcia, 38, who attended city public schools and earned his undergraduate and master’s in business from Yale University, said he would try to make voting more accessible in the state and would build on reforms instituted by Bysiewicz.

Garcia, who is of Puerto Rican and Jewish descent, headed a Puerto Rican social service organization while at Yale, as well its largest Jewish fraternity.

He worked as an assistant project director at the Anti-Defamation League in 1994. After getting his master’s degree, he moved to New York, where he was an investment banker before returning to Connecticut in 2006…

For all our coverage of the 2010 Secretary of the State race see 2010

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Update: New Haven Independent Article <read> The Independent points out an additional exploratory campaign: <Rep. Kevin Roldan of Hartford> So now we count three Democrats and two Republicans.

Here is Garcia’s web site: <GarciaForConnecticut.com>

Hartford Advocate: A New Day? [For Elections Enforcement]

Views of elections enforcement from Representative Chris Caruso and SEEC Director Al Lenge.

Hartford Advocate article on State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC) and criticism of its history of enforcement: A New Day? Critics hope a new head of the state’s Elections Enforcement Commission will be tougher on corrupt politicians <read>

Jeffrey B. Garfield just retired as head of Connecticut’s Elections Enforcement Commission, ending more than 30 years as the official watchdog of our campaign laws.

In theory, Garfield was an ever-vigilant guardian ready to rip the entrails out of any scum-sucking politician who violated our sacred election system.

In reality, Garfield and the EEC more often played the role of flaccid, placid lapdog than ass-chewing election Rottweiler, particularly when it came to incumbent state elected officials.

Garfield’s departure has triggered gushing praise for his long service as well as questions about how effective his enforcement efforts were in the past and whether recent reforms will be able to prevent abuses in the future…

Garfield’s replacement, Albert P. Lenge, insists recent reforms have already made the EEC a tougher, more effective agency. “It’s a brand new day,” Lenge said this week. Let’s hope so…

The EEC seemed more eager to go after challengers and municipal officials than to take on the people who controlled the commission’s budget. The commission almost never launched an investigation on its own, preferring to wait for formal complaints. Garfield said the commission didn’t have the resources to go out looking for violators.

Proof of how weak the enforcement was came in an eruption of federally prosecuted corruption cases that included convictions of ex-Gov. John G. Rowland, Silvester, ex-Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim and ex-state Sen. Ernest Newton III. Those scandals finally led in 2005 to passage of public campaign financing and reforms intended to insulate the commission’s enforcement arm from political pressure.

“Had they [Garfield and the EEC] been stronger, had the whistle been blown sooner, you probably wouldn’t have seen the level of corruption that came about,” said state Rep. Chris Caruso, a Bridgeport Democrat who formerly served as co-chairman of the legislature’s Government Administration and Elections Committee…

Lenge, who served as the commission’s deputy director and general counsel since 1995, doesn’t agree with many criticisms of the EEC’s past performance and also argues recent reforms have made the agency even stronger…

“Those were strong enforcement actions,” said Lenge. Caruso thinks the penalties should have been much heavier.

“There’s been a tradition within the EEC to level fines of a few thousand dollars on sitting state officials,” said Caruso. “In public opinion, really those are slaps on the wrist.”

Lenge says the emphasis on bigger fines ignores the effect an EEC reprimand can have on an incumbent’s reelection. “Just a finding [of wrongdoing] or a reprimand sometimes sends a strong message,” Lenge said.

He also disputes there was ever an EEC tactic of going after easy targets like local or challenge candidates.

Lenge said creation of an enforcement unit that is insulated from the director and the rest of the EEC staff has made the agency more independent and more likely to take on powerful incumbents. He also argues the commission has lots more resources now, with a staff that’s grown from seven in 1995 to 52 today. The EEC is now auditing every single 2008 legislative campaign and will initiate investigations if need be.

In the past we have criticized the speed of the SEEC and the Legislature because election regulations and procedures are not enforceable by the SEEC, leaving little room for holding election officials to account for lapses in the conduct of elections and audits.

Low Tech, Computer Hack

Just a little reminder that we can have all the physical security, encryption, open source, and source disclosure in the world. Yet, there are still low tech ways to hack systems available to high school “D students”.

Update: Nationwide: Computers Increase Students’ Temptation To Cheat

Two Manchester High School students breached the school district’s computer system and altered grades and attendance records, police said Tuesday.

The incident remains under investigation.

Police said the students learned the user name and password to the system from watching a school administrator log in.

They changed grades and attendance records multiple times over the past two weeks, police said. One of the students changed a grade from a D to a C, police said. Another student discovered what they were doing and told a school official about it.

Update: 10/30/2009 Courant: Nationwide: Computers Increase Students’ Temptation To Cheat <read>

More evidenced that it does not take researcg at Princeton or UConn to cheat with computers. Are registrars any more savvy than school administrators in preventing and detecting fraud?

Much of it is using computers for cheating, but some is hacking:

There’s nothing new about cheating, said Lt. James Wardwell, a computer forensics expert with the New Britain Police Department, “and the computer is just another tool to help someone accomplish a bad deed.”

What is new is that cheating in America’s high schools has become “rampant, and it’s getting worse,” according to a 2008 nationwide survey by the Josephson Institute, the California-based nonprofit organization that runs the Character Counts! youth ethics program in schools in Connecticut and throughout the country.

The survey of 30,000 high school students found that 64 percent said they had cheated on a test during the past year, up from 60 percent in 2006. The survey did not address school computer hacking, but 36 percent of respondents said they had used the Internet to plagiarize an assignment, an increase from 33 percent in 2006.

Some students have been lured into cyber-cheating by the apparent cloak that computers and personal communication devices provide, Michael Josephson, president of the ethics institute, said. Armed with stolen information, kids can enter school record systems from their bedrooms, or they can photograph copies of tests with their cellphones and send them to others who have to take the same test…

Newspaper reports from throughout the country show that the methods students use to crack school computer programs range from simply watching a school staff member entering a password — the method used in Manchester, according to police — to sneaking spyware onto school computers. “Key-logger” programs, for instance, record all strokes on a computer keyboard and send a record to another computer.

In some cases, cyber-cheating students have lifted user names and passwords from hard copy lists left in school offices. Some school staff members use their own names, or slightly altered variations, as passwords, enabling a student to enter a grading or attendance site after a few guesses.

That was the case in Naples, Fla., recently, where police say a 16-year-old boy slipped into school district computers by guessing an employee’s password. The boy was then able to change the grades of five or six students, according to Florida news reports.

Nationwide: Computers Increase Students’ Temptation To Cheat

Al Lenge Named Director of State Elections Enforcement Commission

Al Lenge, long time Deputy Director of the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC) was named Director, replacing retired Director Jeff Garfield.

From Jon Lender at the Hartford Courant: Al Lenge, long time Deputy Director of the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC) was named Director, replacing retired Director Jeff Garfield <read>

Lenge has been deputy director and assistant general counsel since 1995, and previously headed the elections division at the office of the Secretary of the State.

In a statement Wednesday, the commisson called Lenge “a committed and experienced leader who has been involved in all aspects of election and campaign finance law.” Garfield said: “He brings continuity,experience and dedication to his new role and will continue to make significant contributions to the operations of the Commission with the utmost degree of professionalism.”

“I am excited and welcome this new opportunity to continue to serve the Commission and the people of the State of Connecticut in ensuring fairness and impartiality in the administration of election laws. The SEEC faces a challenging year ahead,” Lenge said in a statement. “I will draw on my experience during this critical phase of the Commission’s development and continue to build and foster relationships among staff, other state agencies and our partners. I am honored to serve as Executive Director and I especially look forward to working closely with the legislature on the major reforms concerning public campaign financing.”

This is no surprise. I doubt there is anyone more qualified. Although we have criticized the SEEC for lack of speed, we have found both Mr. Garfield and Mr. Lenge easy to work with, committed and knowledgeable. Congratulations.

The Day: New London has problem with math

Actually it is more a problem of complexity and communications

New London has problem with math <read> Actually it is more a problem of complexity and communications:

The decision to consolidate seven districts into three was made late last spring as a cost-cutting move. Like every other city and town in the state, money is tight and New London is looking to trim wherever it can find savings.

The state’s statutory requirement for municipal polling places is that there be at least one for each House district. And since New London is split between the 39th and 40th districts, the city’s minimum is two, but in consolidating, it opted for three for convenience.

The savings amount to about $12,000 for each election, including costs for setting up ballots, programming voting machines, adding telephone lines, and paying poll workers. Rather than the usual 16 machines in operation in New London on Election Day, now there will be eight. And the typical contingent of about 60 poll workers will be halved to 3…

The only two districts that are physically moving are the 3rd and 4th, which previously voted at Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School. The problem is, they’re moving to different places. The old 3rd is going to the new 1st, which casts ballots at New London High School. (In the past, the high school was the place to vote for the old 1st, 2nd, and 3rd districts.) And the 4th is going to the new 2nd, which used to be home to the 4th, 5th and 7th districts. So if used to vote at Bennie Dover, you need to figure out where you’re going on Nov. 3rd…

The registrar’s map delineating the new districts is virtually impossible to read, and the problem is compounded because in some neighborhoods, the odd-numbered side of a street votes in one district while the even-numbered households vote in another.

How Much Are Election Officials Paid In Norwalk?

“This is a little more than we paid in the past but is in line with the pay rate for the temporary workers hired by the Parks Department for giving out beach stickers this summer. It seems to us that it would be discriminatory to have different rates of pay for equivalent office work at City Hall.”

Story in the Hour: Part-time workers hired by registrar may get pay hike <read>

The argument for a raise seem to make sense:

“We also need to hire part-time staff for the period before the election. We are proposing a rate of $15 per hour for our deputy registers and experienced staff and a rate of $12 for any necessary new or less experienced staff,” wrote Republican Registrar Karen Doyle Lyons and Democratic Registrar Stuart W. Wells in an overview of the proposed pay scale. “This is a little more than we paid in the past but is in line with the pay rate for the temporary workers hired by the Parks Department for giving out beach stickers this summer. It seems to us that it would be discriminatory to have different rates of pay for equivalent office work at City Hall.”

Park workers presumably have a somewhat steadier, longer term job.

Here are the rates in Norwalk for election day officials:

The pay rates for election poll workers, meanwhile, would remain unchanged from 2008: Head moderator ($500); assistant moderator ($400); polling place moderator ($300); alternate moderator ($275); assistant registrar ($200); checker ($175); tabulator tender ($175); ballot clerk ($175); demonstrator ($175); interpreter (additional $75).

Presuming a ballot clerk works 16 hours @$175 that works out to just under $11 per hour, not including training time. Yet, poll workers have an even less steady job with very very long hours.

Legislature Seriously Considering Fixing Campaign Finance Law

House Speaker Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden, said lawmakers have been busy finishing the budget, but plan to seriously consider addressing the issue.

Update: 11/25/2009: Rell Summons Lawmakers; Proposes Campaign Fix <CTNewsJunkie>

Rell’s proposal to the legislature amends the Citizens Election Program in accordance with the federal judge’s ruling. Rell’s proposal would eliminate additional qualifying requirements for minor-party and petitioning candidates, provide grants in the same amounts to all candidates, reduce the size of the grants, and delay the increase in the grant amounts until 2014.

Rep. James Spallone, D-Essex, said he thinks the most prudent thing to do would be to eliminate the reversion clause or what many have referred to as the “time bomb,” which returns the fundraising system back to the way it was before 2005.

By eliminating the reversion clause it gives the legislature time to react properly to a decision by the Appeals Court, Spallone said. “I think its really important not to take guidance from one trial judge.”

Either the Second Circuit can reverse the lower court’s decision, uphold it, or reverse it in part or uphold it in part. By repealing simply the reversion clause it gives “us time to react properly,” Spallone said.

That being said he welcomed the governor’s interest in working together on the issue.

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Update: 10/22/2009 Government Elections and Administration Committee schedules forum. <CTNewsJunkie> <Aldon Hynes> I was there. It seems the Legislature has three choices:

Leave the law alone or make portions of the law severable.
Change the law to improve 3rd-party/independent provisions and perhaps other provisions
Change the law to completely level the playing field and fix other portions to clearly meet all the Judge’s issues in the ruling.

We were also present at the forum. Going part way, option 2, risks not going far enough and complicates the legal challenges, providing evidence that the Legislature may believe the current law is unfair. Going all the way would risks being able to restrict portions of the law in the future, and risks potential spending increases. Doing nothing increases the risks that the 2010 election will be disrupted by a sudden stop to the law. (Some candidates would presumably have public $ and would be then able to raise unlimited funds, while others would no longer be able to apply for and receive public funds).

Update: 10/12/2009: Government Elections and Administration Committee schedules forum. CTNewsJunkie story: Legislative Forum on Campaign Finance Reform <read>

Update: 10/11/2009: An Op-Ed in the Courant, retired Superior Court Judge Robert Satter gives his opinion, Election Law Needs Change – Not Defense, <read>

Blumenthal argued that such criteria were necessary to save the state from paying campaign grants to small, splinter parties. Underhill refuted that concern by pointing to the experience of Maine and Arizona, which have public campaign finance laws with no additional qualifying criteria imposed on minor party candidates. Neither of those states have had an undue number of minor party candidates qualify for campaign funding.

Underhill noted that the bill Gov. M. Jodi Rell submitted to the legislature did not contain different criteria for minor and major party candidates. The judge implied in his opinion that such a change in the law would go a long way to making it constitutional.

Underhill’s opinion is factually and legally so sound that an appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals appears fruitless. But the appeal itself casts the pall of legal uncertainty over state funding for campaigns in 2010, which for the first time will include paying for gubernatorial races.

I spent two weeks in Judge Satter’s court about 30 years ago, fortunately as Jury Forman. It was fascinating and informative, it gave me an appreciation of the Jury system.

Once again CTVotersCount.org has taken no position on the legality of the current law. We focus on election integrity. We have members on both sides.

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According to an AP Story in the News Times, Fed ruling puts Conn. candidates in limbo, <read>

“We really don’t have the luxury to wait around and see what happens in the courts,” said

Beth Rotman, director of the Citizens Election Program.

“My preference is that the legislature move quickly, expeditiously and fix the issue identified in a special session in the coming months,” she said.

House Speaker Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden, said lawmakers have been busy finishing the budget, but plan to seriously consider addressing the issue. He did not provide a time frame for possible legislative action..

House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, who has formed an exploratory committee, said like the other candidates, he’s wondering what’s going to happen. Cafero said the General Assembly should have included a clause in the original bill, which Republicans suggested, that would have allowed the overall program to continue if a judge found particular sections unconstitutional.

Sen. Gary LeBeau, D-East Hartford, who is exploring a run for governor as a Democrat, said he expects his fellow legislators will fix the public financing law and somehow allow the program to continue. The question, he said, is how broadly they intend to intervene.

Earlier coverage: <here> <and here>

Greenwich Registrar and Deputy Secretary Mara Discuss Today’s Audit

“We have to make sure these machines are working properly and reliably and counting the votes,” Ms. Mara said.

We would prefer audits that were intended to do more than just check the machines, that they also were intend to verify the election results as well.

Acorn-online, ‘Short and sweet’: Voting results to be audited, <read>

Deputy Secretary of the State Leslie Mara told the Post the goal of the audits is to confirm that the counts registered by the optical scanner voting machines match a hand recount of the ballots.

“We have to make sure these machines are working properly and reliably and counting the votes,” Ms. Mara said.

In the cases where the audit discovers a discrepancy between the machine count and the hand recount, it is not necessarily evidence of fraud. In fact, Ms. Mara said there have been no major cases of that discovered and, generally, there is an innocent explanation for what happened.

“We’ve been fortunate,” Ms. Mara said. “Perhaps we will see a one-vote discrepancy or maybe something like someone forgot to count an envelope of ballots and those are discrepancies that are easily explained. We know that the districts are careful in the first place and are getting accurate counts. Sometimes there is human error despite the best of intentions and these audits get to the bottom of that.”

The process is expected to be a simple one that will be completed rather quickly. Sharon Vecchiola, the town’s Democratic registrar of voters, told the Post on Tuesday that the hand recount will be “short and sweet” and likely will only take an hour to do. Not only was turnout low for the primary, with only 67 votes in District 4, 148 in District 5 and 83 in District 10 needing to be counted, but hand recounts are nothing new.

In fact Ms. Vecchiola said the town has been audited every single year since the optical scan voting machines have been used starting in 2006. The town even had two last year, for the presidential election and the primary for the Democratic nomination for the District 4 congressional race where Cos Cob resident Jim Himes defeated former Greenwich resident Lee Whitnum and went on to win the seat from longtime incumbent Republican Christopher Shays.

We would prefer audits that were intended to do more than just check the machines, that they also were intend to verify the election results as well. As stated in the Principles and Best Practices:

Post-election audits must be completed prior to finalizing official election results and must either verify the outcome or, through a 100% recount, correct the outcome.

And by the League of Women Voters Audit Recommendations:

The audit process should begin as soon as possible after the initial tallies recorded by the voting system are reported. The audit should be completed prior to declaration of the final official results, and the audit should confirm the outcome or lead to a recount that determines the outcome.

Not every count has gone well in the past. As the Coalition Report of the November 2008 Audit stated:

We conclude, based on our observations and analysis of audit reports submitted to the Secretary of the State that the November post-election audits still do not inspire confidence…Among our greatest concerns are the discrepancies between machine counts and hand-counts reported to the Secretary of the State by several municipalities. In many cases, these discrepancies are not thoroughly and reasonably explained. We believe that the ad-hoc counting procedures used by many municipalities were not sufficient to count ballots accurately and efficiently

‘Short and sweet’: Voting results to be audited