Sample ballots were sent to town election administrators Monday and, in anticipation of a state Supreme Court ruling, the candidates on those ballots were in no particular order. The same day, attorneys for the Republican Party of Connecticut and the Secretary of the State’s office issued arguments for and against the contention that a lawsuit brought by the GOP should not have made it to the Supreme Court. That lawsuit is causing a delay on the final order of candidates for Election Day ballots. The GOP took Secretary of the State Denise Merrill to court after she decided Democrats should get the top ballot line. Republicans say state law dictates otherwise.
Among arguments made by the state Attorney General’s office, arguing for Merrill before the Supreme Court, was the contention Republicans did not seek an administrative solution to the dispute, putting an issue in the court’s lap it should never have dealt with.
“The Republican Party had an available administrative remedy,” state solicitor general Gregory D’Auria argued in his reply to the Supreme Court. “lt could have, at least a year ago, requested that the Secretary of the State issue a declaratory ruling as to the order of the ballot for the 2012 elections. It chose not to and instead waited until a matter of weeks before ballots have to be prepared to initiate a declaratory judgment action in the Superior Court.”
Full Article: Sample ballots in Connecticut list candidates in no particular order – The Middletown Press : Serving Middletown, CT.