Absentee Ballots Valid, Elections Office Blamed Miscommunication

GUILFORD, CT — The general counsel for the Connecticut Secretary of State and the state election director said absentee ballots that were part of a Protect Guilford Schools campaign mailer are valid and should be processed.

“The Connecticut Secretary of State’s office has now made crystal clear that these ballots will be counted, and that our campaign and others rightfully relied on their office’s advice before sending this mailer out,” said Bill Bloss, a decades-long Democratic member of the Guilford Board of Education who is running the fused Protect Guilford Schools campaign slate of Democrat and Independent Board of Education candidates running in the Nov. 2 election.

Wednesday, Patch received press releases from Debbie DeMusis representing “Guilford voters” announcing a rally on the Town Green to outline, “an attempt by the Guilford Democratic Town Committee and the Board of Education candidates aligned with Protect Guilford Schools to illegally gather absentee ballots,” which she said led her to file a complaint with the State Elections Enforcement Commission.

DeMusis said that a campaign mailing “included thousands of absentee ballot applications that were illegally signed by a top campaign advisor.” She alleged that, “Guilford Democrats and the so-called independents on Row C conspired to send a mailing containing unsolicited absentee ballot applications which violated multiple state laws.”

She described the mailings as containing “tainted absentee applications” and that “Guilford voters urge state elections enforcement commission to issue cease and desist order to halt illegal absentee voting.”

“There’s no question that the Democrats and the Row C candidates have participated in an illegal scheme to influence the outcome of the election,” she said. “These Board of Education candidates will stop at nothing to get control of Guilford schools and defeat the parents fighting to maintain a quality education--up to and including a cynical attempt to trick registered Democrats into believing that these unsolicited and tainted absentee ballot applications were provided to them legally.”

DeMusis also included comments from others about Democrat’s’ “law-breaking.”

“Guilford has a history of clean elections; we’re not used to the sort of law-breaking we’ve seen from the Democratic Town Committee and the Row C apologists for Critical Race Theory who operate under the guise of Protect Guilford Schools,” said George Mack.

DeMusis said that her complaint called on the “SEEC to enforce the law and protect the integrity of Guilford’s election. The absentee ballot applications tainted by this illegal process should be set aside, and the people and political committees responsible for this illegal voting sham should be barred from handling any absentee ballot applications between now and Election Day.”

The allegations of illegality quashed by Secretary of State office

But by Thursday, after local media news stories about the rally and DeMusis’ allegation of election wrong-doing, led Connecticut Director of Elections Ted Bromley to issue a letter to State Elections Enforcement Commission Executive director Michael Brand to “review communication related to this issue.”

Gabe Rosenberg, General Counsel for Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill said in an email to the Protect Guilford Schools' campaign consultant, that there was a “miscommunication” between the Secretary of State’s office when Bloss asked about absentee ballots signatures, noting it was a “wholly technical issue.”

“Connecticut law establishes a procedure for campaigns to send absentee ballot applications to eligible voters. Unfortunately, a miscommunication between our office and a representative of several campaigns over the technical question of how exactly a signature from a campaign representative should be affixed to the application led to absentee ballot applications being sent to voters with a signature reproduction rather than an original signature, as Connecticut law requires. It is clear that the campaigns were relying on our office’s imprecise language in an email when they reproduced the signature on the applications,” the letter reads in part.

“Importantly, this is a wholly technical issue, and no election, or voter’s ability to participate, should be affected. Town Clerks across the state, who were diligent in bringing this issue to our attention, have been instructed that these applications that they receive from voters are valid applications and should be processed, and an absentee ballot mailed to the voters,” the letter reads. “Our office’s main concern, and the main concern of local election officials across the state, is that eligible voters are able to participate in this November’s election safely and conveniently in the method of their choosing.”

Read the letter here:

SEEC Clarification letter C... by Ellyn Santiago

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Bloss told Patch in an email that what happened, Wednesday, was “nothing but an attempt by Guilford Republicans to throw out valid ballots and disenfranchise voters, just as we saw from their national counterparts in our last Presidential election.”

“Only in Trumpworld is helping eligible voters cast valid votes a problem,” he said.

Meanwhile, a Guilford resident contacted Patch to note that they received a text Thursday that was concerning.

“The nasty board of education election in Guilford just got nastier,” they wrote noting they have “no affiliation to either the Republican or Democratic party and have not given my phone number to any political organization. As such, this is an illegal text message.
Basically, whether true or not, I should not be getting this on my phone.”

The text read:

**** BREAKING NEWS ****

An attempt by the Guilford Democratic Town Committee and the Board of Education candidates on Row C to illegally gather absentee ballots prompted a complaint filed yesterday with the State Elections Enforcement Commission. “Guilford Democrats and the so-called independents on Row C conspired to send an illegal mailing containing unsolicited absentee ballot applications to thousands of voters.”

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