Judge Rules For Santanella In Enfield Ballot Fight

ENFIELD, CT — A Hartford Superior Court judge has ruled against Thomas Tyler in his effort to force an Aug. 11 Democratic primary against State Rep. John Santanella in the 58th Assembly District.

The ruling does not say Tyler’s signatures were fake or that voters did anything wrong. Instead, the court found the petition process itself did not follow state election law.

According to the court decision, Tyler’s campaign used petition forms that were given out before the date allowed under Connecticut law. The judge also found the forms were missing a required statement from petition circulators listing how many signatures were collected on each petition page.

Because of those problems, the court ruled the petitions could not be counted. Without those petitions, Tyler did not have enough valid signatures to qualify for the Democratic primary ballot.

Tyler had collected 299 accepted signatures, according to the court decision. He needed 228 to qualify. But the judge found that 83 signatures came from petition forms that were circulated too early. Removing those signatures left Tyler short of the number required to make the ballot.

The case centered partly on confusing or incorrect guidance from the Connecticut Secretary of the State’s office. The court decision said Enfield Democratic Registrar Beth Jerez relied on state training and election materials when issuing the forms, and state elections attorneys later acknowledged that state guidance contained incorrect information.

Still, the judge ruled that bad guidance did not override the law.

Santanella, the endorsed Democrat in the race, said the lawsuit was about making sure all candidates follow the same rules.

“This case was about making sure the same rules apply to everyone,” Santanella said in a statement. “The General Assembly established a clear date for when petitions could be issued. The Court found those petitions were issued too early, and it enforced the law as written.”

Tyler’s campaign criticized the decision in a Facebook post, saying the judge “threw out all of our signatures” even though there was no finding of fraud. The campaign said Jerez and Enfield Town Clerk Sheila Bailey did not create the petition form and were following the guidance they received from the state.

“The judge agreed that no fraud occurred in obtaining the signatures, and the judge had no question about the validity of the 299 signatures obtained by our campaign from Democratic registered voters within the 58th District,” Tyler’s campaign said.

Tyler’s campaign said it is evaluating whether to appeal the decision or switch affiliations and run as an independent candidate in November.

Santanella said the ruling allows the campaign to move forward.

“Now it’s time to turn our attention back to the issues that matter most to the people of Enfield and continue the work of moving our community forward,” Santanella said.