A Baker’s Dozen Solutions/Problems for Electoral Reform in CT.
I recently ran as an independent candidate on a reform platform for the 22st district Senate Seat in CT.Below are proposed Solutions and the Problems that surfaced.
Solutions:
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Highest Priority: Make the Elections Division within the Secretary of State’s office and SEEC independent and twice as strong, with investigative authority; ability to pursue criminal charges (not just civil); issue subpoenas, convene a grand jury; allocate real penalties, including jail time; etc. Allow them to revise the code, which has been manipulated and watered down by years of elected officials and others, and give SEEC real teeth.
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Make all election filings online for full transparency for the public and eliminate the plausible deniability practice by state employees ie. hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil.
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Institute with the next Special Election (for 21st District Rep seat) Ranked Choice Voting and/or online voting. Our legislators JUST PASSED this program and now we can roll it out in this election as a pilot.
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Set up a Victim’s Fund so people that felt coerced, pressured, or compelled to donate can anonymously get their money back.
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Make Bridgeport a ward of the county..
Problems
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The state is aware of the electoral issues, particularly in Bridgeport. It props up Bridgeport, as it is the production site for all its projects, primarily construction.
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I filed a complaint form (attached) with the SEEC. Here are some screenshots; the entirety is posted here.
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Mario Testo was the face of the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee for decades. He has moved to Monroe and now it looks like he’s changed teams, hosting the nominating event. This is more than optics, and those who know Fairfield county politics know the significance of the GOP having its convention there. Is this the new face of the GOP in Fairfield county?
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What is the significance of them making up their own category of Party Convention?
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It’s more on the state as a poor chain of custody issue, but it seems unequal that the GOP could submit via email an altered form that had no Print Name field. Totally insecure — the state has no way of verifying who sent the form. This is the pattern. See Mayor Joe Ganim’s paperwork last time he ran for the mayoral race. The State removed the Print Name field, which waters them down and removes accountability. We have no idea who signed these forms.
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Who was at Testos that night… is there a log of the proceedings?
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The Dem’s use a different form and call it a Town Meeting. It doesn’t have a Print Name field, but that’s not on them, they are using the form supplied.
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What is on the Democrats is that they have a 2-1 majority in CT and they set up the system to dissuade competition. While making it easy on themselves, they sent me out in wintry parking lots to get 400 signatures on pen & paper, including highly personal petitioners’ info, like DOB. It’s set up to block new candidates while making it very easy for the major parties. Please see video here
