New Haven County Registrars’ Meeting
April 9, 2008
The meeting was held for the third consecutive time at Biagetti’s on Campbell Avenue in West Haven. Approximately 55 people were in attendance, including the invited speakers.
The meeting began rather informally at about 6:15 p.m. with Carmela Apuzzo’s request that Anthony Esposito ask for blessing. She then praised George Cody’s hard work as president of ROVAC for the past two years. She added that he makes a great potato salad if he’s invited to a potluck.
Cody then told of a mailing he had sent to the ROVAC Board recently that dealt with registrar’s pay and the Secretary of the State’s letter about professionalism. He stressed that a great many changes occurred in the past few years, and many more would be happening when Tony Esposito is president. He cited a bill that ROVAC had submitted to the General Elections and Administration Committee (GAE) that was stripped of all the language submitted by the Registrars and replaced by the Secretary of the State’s statement on professionalism (HB 5665). “Unfortunately, the reality is that all polling places must be the same,” he said. An effort to standardize all polling places across the state came with the new equipment. There will be voter advocates watching at every polling place—and the five GAE hearings across the state similarly provided them a vehicle. The widespread complaint was a lack of training for staff at polls and for the registrars, and need for more voter privacy. This seems to characterize the attitude of the GAE Committee members. Cody urged registrars to cultivate a good relationship with their legislators and suggested they invite them into their offices.
Deputy Secretary of the State Leslie Mara said the Secretary of the State’s office is looking forward to the ROVAC convention. The theme of SOS day will be “Getting Back to the Basics.” They are hoping to get beyond talking about machines. Mara attended all five public hearings around the state. She tried to speak at the Norwalk hearing but Chris Caruso said she couldn’t. She said that most of the people who didn’t go to the hearings were people who knew elections officials did what they needed to do to get the job done. GAE is stressing consistency and uniformity. She said there would be organizational changes in the Elections Division and they will be doing another series of regional training sessions. She said “The answer is not always a new law.” They are also looking at doing some poll worker training on line and are studying videos from other states. They have also made some changes to the website and she urged more use of the SOS website to get updated manuals. Very recently, the regulations for recounts were changed to approve the use of machine recounts on all the ballots that officials agree are properly filled out. (A new machine with a new memory card would be used.) The only ballots to be hand-counted would be those that might be defective. Mara added that the cost of next November’s ballots would be reimbursed and registrars should order 100 percent of the number of voters.
Anthony Esposito said the new Mark Sense voting system for all disabled persons would be used during elections of the ROVAC board next week. In Judy Beaudreau’s absence, he reminded those attending the convention to bring the information she has been emailing.
Clifford Heintz from Adkins Printing has been providing ballots for many of Connecticut towns and cities. He brought a laptop computer to show how easy it could be to set up and order ballots through Adkins’ new on-line data entry program. He assured those who are more comfortable with hard copies that this information was easily downloaded as well. Adkins will provide a kit with instructions, and they are also available on-line. Adkins had developed a pull-down menu so the titles of candidates could be placed properly and to help registrars avoid repetitive blank filling which could lead to accidental errors. He explained that the ballot set-up is the first step and that his company then sends the ballot in PDF form (after it has been proof read) to LHS so they can properly program memory cards. He said the ballots can be printed and delivered very fast because they are done in state whereas LHS ballots are printed in Oklahoma. He added that Adkins charges more for each individual ballot, but they deliver personally without charge whereas LHS tacks on additional charges for shipping and handling. There was some discussion about how Town Clerks have handled this job in the past and some resist change. It was also pointed out that the chain of custody of ballots is a major issue in Hartford, and Heintz responded that the delivery man is one of Adkins own employees and that their delivery boxes are double-sided to cut down on damage to the ballots. He added that referendum procedures involve a first step through Adkins to determine how many questions there are. This information is conveyed to LHS and then the wording of the questions is set up for the ballot at Adkins.
Pam Parrella of North Haven told of the saga she had gone through to get a raise for the Registrars. Much of her success depended upon getting media support, which involved favorable articles in local newspapers whose reporters were invited to budget hearings. After calculating how many hours were spent doing the job (1,331), she determined that actually it was equivalent to a full-time job. She used the PA 07-194 breakdown of the division of work that all Registrars had been given to show how much more of what had formerly been Town Clerk’s duties fell on Registrars. Since this is the year when most of the changes have been made, it is the right time to make one’s case for increased benefits. To get people to understand what we do, make sure that you face public access video tapers during your presentation at meetings. She also suggested that Registrars get letters of support from their poll workers. She added that Registrars ought to pick a date to go to the legislators to ask for fair compensation. Cody thanked Parrella for her efforts, but stressed that much of the success depends on local government and the friendly relationship you have with the finance department and First Selectman/ Mayor/ Town Manager. Even the effort to increase reimbursement to attend conferences was resisted by CCM (Council of Connecticut Municipalities). He reminded Registrars to respond to the survey questions about their pay because it will help the whole group. Cody said he had finally been included in the New Canaan pension plan, but he receives no other benefits. Parrella added that she was injured while moving the optical scanner and FAX machines and she paid about $1000 in medical co-pays. She should have applied for workers’ compensation. Mara added that support on the state level really is not likely, and because Registrars are elected they cannot strike. The argument is made that Registrars take the office because they like to do the job. The likelihood of placing the Registrars on the state payroll is slim. She added that the newsletters that Registrars receive from the Secretary of the State are also sent to CCM and COST (Council of Small Towns) to seek their support. However, in these economic times, local support is apt to be stronger.
Another question came from Louise Graver of Guilford about how the Secretary of the State’s office would address the shortcomings of the Converse System that failed so drastically before the Presidential Primary. We were assured that steps were being taken to study the system and run tests to make sure a new system would work. Holly Lafond of Wallingford asked if the Secretary of the State had her own IT Department. No, it depends on DOIT (Department of Information Technology). A complaint was made to the effect that the Secretary of the State has done Registrars no favors by unsympathetic comments to the press. Also, the question of the LHS demand for the return of its Demo Memory Cards or pay rent for them was a sore spot that Mara said might be addressed by the Secretary of the State’s office. The demo cards were not part of the contract—but most Registrars were not aware of this. Another question was whether there were other options for programming the memory cards besides LHS, and the response was “Not at this time.” Mara pointed out that many states that initially got touch screen machines are scrapping them in favor of optical scanning equipment.
Cody and Esposito reminded Apuzzo that elections needed to be held this evening for the two-year terms of officers. Carmela then decided to seek volunteers for the various committees before dealing with the offices. No volunteers were requested for ways and means, and no volunteers offered to serve on the handbook and convention committees. The others were filled:
Technology: Louise Graver (Guilford) and Holly Lafond (Wallingford)
Nominating: JoAnn Bolin (Southbury) and Bryon Wentworth (North Branford)
Legislative: JoAnn Bolin (Southbury)
Education: Marion Burkhard (Branford)
By-Laws: Aleta Looker (Cheshire)
Then the officers were chosen. Apuzzo named her choices for Treasurer (Hazel Hummel), Secretary (Joanne Caligari) and then was nominated for Chair by Helen Mis (Beacon Falls) Apuzzo was challenged for the position of Chair by the nomination of Betsy Adams (Cheshire) by her deputy, Susan Pappas. After Vice Chair Aleta Looker had gone about the process of counting those voting for each candidate, Adams’ nomination was challenged by Cathy Grace (Beacon Falls) because a deputy registrar instead of a Registrar did it. A review of the by-laws did not spell out a procedure, but Looker re-nominated Adams. A re-vote was held and Carmela Apuzzo (Orange) was elected. She then chose Helen Mis as Vice Chair. The meeting broke up without any official adjournment vote at 9 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Aleta Looker, Secretary pro-tem (possibly one of three people who were chosen by Apuzzo to take minutes)
4/10/08