Somers Selectmen Taking 'No Action' On Ballot Questions

SOMERS, CT — The Somers Board of Selectmen on Monday voted to take "no action" charter revision questions from the Nov. 6 referendum, citing a public notice oversight pointed out by municipal lawyer.

A special meeting was called for Monday.

Public comments submitted to the board at its Nov. 27 meeting called for such a decision.

A letter from Attorney Carl Landolina dated Nov. 28, was unsealed after the Monday's vote.

It stated that the ballot questions were not proper posted on advance with a legal notice.

"In my view, the statutes must be followed exactly for any charter or charter revision to be valid," Landolina wrote.

The firestorm was prompted by one question in particular. About a week after the Election, it was announced that a clerical error was the cause of a discrepancy of more than 1,000 votes on ballot question 6, officials said.

Voting on the question took place on Nov. 6 as part of the statewide elections. Qestion 6 read:

Shall The Town remain guided by an elected Board of Selectmen with an appointed Chief Administrative Officer reporting to the Board of Selectmen?

The premise was to gauge public opinion on adding a town administrator to oversee the day-to-day operations of Somers in addition to the charter-mandated first selectman and three-person board of selectman, officials from the town clerk's office said.

Officials said that, on Election Day, an abundance of wet ballots, most from raindrops dripping off voters, caused a machine to malfunction. A replacement machine was then deployed, officials said.

At about 1:30 a.m., when the votes were tabluated the results seemed to be:

• Yes - 1,289
• No - 1,669

On Friday however, when officials were performing a categorical voting breakdown for the Secretary of the State's office, the discrepancy was noticed on the backup tapes for both machines, according to the clerk's office.

That turned the tally into:

• Yes - 2,456
• No - 1,669

Photo Credit: Tim Jensen

To sign up for Ellington and Somers breaking news alerts and more, click here.