Constitution State News

Democratic voters in Connecticut have been flooded with thousands of absentee ballot applications that Republican candidate for secretary of the state Dominic Rapini calls “fraudulent and illegal.”

Rapini says that the prefilled applications, which allegedly bear illegally reproduced signatures, are result of  the state’s director of elections, Ted Bromley, being either “sloppy or clever.”

“He’s been at this for 18 years,” Rapini said of Bromley. “A first-year law student could have given out better advice than he did.”

Rapini said he was first alerted to the problem in February when as then-chairman of Fight Voter Fraud (a position he stepped down from in August when he announced his candidacy) his group discovered 1,000 absentee ballot applications in the Stamford special election with printed signatures of those assisting in filling out the applications. State law requires an actual, or wet ink signature, from ballot assistants.

A complaint was filed with Connecticut's State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC).

“The SEEC ruled that these ballot applications were improperly distributed by the Democratic Town Committee,” Rapini said in a statement.  “The record is clear that the Secretary of the State’s Office had warnings about the potential abuse of absentee ballots from the special elections in January 2020 such as Stamford where 1,000 absentee ballot requests had the exact same violations." 

"In the Stamford case, the SEEC complaint (#2021-041) which I helped file with Stamford RTC chair Fritz Blau, was found valid and wrongdoing was confirmed," Rapini added. "The SEEC ruled that these ballot applications were improperly distributed by the Democratic Town Committee. This violation of the laws governing campaigns soliciting absentee ballots should have been a red flag for Ted Bromley, a teachable moment for all campaigns. But it was ignored."

Rapini said his group found this practice, with up to 50,000 applications involved, repeated in at least 10 towns.

All Connecticut voters are permitted to vote by absentee ballots under a temporary law approved by the Democratic General Assembly in 2020, adding fear of contracting COVID-19 to six categories listed in the state Constitution when such voting is allowed. In May the General Assembly extended the absentee ballot voting rule through the Nov. 2 municipal elections.

According to a News 8 report, in August Bromley was asked via email by a Democratic campaign consultant with Blue Edge Strategies about the practice of using printed signatures.

“Is that in statute? Or are we safe sending applications out in bulk with a printed signature? We’ve done that for years with no issue (but that doesn’t mean it’s been legal),'' the consultant wrote.

Elections director Ted Bromley responded, “Digital is fine,” News 8 reported.

Two weeks ago, Bromley sent a letter to the SEEC admitting that a “miscommunication” had occurred: “…due to a miscommunication caused by imprecise language on our part." He added, "Many campaigns may have understandably relied on those emails to believe that it was permissible to use a reproduced signature on those prefilled applications. Although Connecticut statute does require a ‘wet ink’ signature, it is clear that campaigns could have justifiably relied on our advice to believe the opposite was true.”

Rapini said the voters aren’t the ones who should be penalized and should not be required to know all the technicalities of the law.

“When they talk about mass mailing of ballots leading to fraud and abuse, this is it,” he said.