City council members are considering what changes to make to the registrars of voters’ office — including removing one or more of the registrars — following a report Friday that highlighted numerous failures by the office during and after Election Day. A committee formed to investigate mishaps that caused polls to open late on Nov. 4 issued a report of its findings, which include a failure of elections officials to provide the secretary of the state with information about polling place moderators; a failure to file final registry books with the town and city clerk by Oct. 29; a failure to prepare and deliver final registry books to moderators by 8 p.m. the night before the election, as required by state law; and a failure to correct discrepancies in the vote tallies. A committee formed to investigate mishaps that caused polls to open late on Nov. 4 issued a report of its findings, which include a failure of elections officials to provide the secretary of the state with information about polling place moderators; a failure to file final registry books with the town and city clerk by Oct. 29; a failure to prepare and deliver final registry books to moderators by 8 p.m. the night before the election, as required by state law; and a failure to correct discrepancies in the vote tallies reported by the head moderator. Council President Shawn Wooden called the situation “outrageous.”
PDF: Committee’s Report On Election Day In Hartford
“The first part of this was just getting to the facts. We have that now and the council will have to deliberate in very short order,” Wooden said Friday. “Cleary, this is unacceptable. It’s outrageous. We need to be able to do better in terms of running elections in this city. “I think there will be universal support for fixing the problem, for fixing the system. Maybe that relates to individuals, maybe that relates to the structure of our registrars of voters’ office — our elections administration. Maybe it involves both.”
The council’s operations, management, budget and legislative affairs committee will come up with recommendations for reform. The council as a whole also has the power to remove any of Hartford’s three elected registrars with a supermajority vote. Wooden said he plans to meet with members of Hartford’s legislative delegation and representatives from the secretary of the state’s office next week.
Full Article: Report Cites Numerous Failures By Hartford, Conn., Registrars – Hartford Courant.