Secretary Of The State Candidates Promote Similar Views At Newtown Gathering

By John Voket

(This is the second of a two-part news feature on Democratic candidates for the secretary of the state’s office who conducted a recent information forum in Newtown.)

It was all about who could do best by Connecticut’s businesses and voters.

On July 14, the six Democratic contenders who are vying to replace current Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz came to Newtown to introduce themselves to interested voters, to discuss their individual views about the job, and to talk about the significant challenges facing the state, and the SOTS office in the coming years.

Ms Bysiewicz has declared her candidacy for governor, opening up the field for a new leader in the office that handles business and election related services for Connecticut.

The dominant issue at the forum centered on the responsibilities the next secretary of the state will have overseeing a statewide transition from mechanical to electronic voting technology. Currently, the secretary of the state’s office is working with other key state departments involved in the process of reviewing proposals from vendors, one of which will likely supply the first round of electronic machines that Ms Bysiewicz has vowed will be in place by Election Day 2006.

The federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) has mandated that all states accepting grant funding have fully accessible terminals available in each voting precinct by January 2007. Connecticut has already accepted a $32 million grant for this purpose.

Connecticut also passed legislation this year mandating all voting technology used in the state issue a voter verified paper trail to ensure both the integrity and security of votes cast, while providing a hard copy means to manually audit precincts, or conduct manual recounts. The secretary’s office will also oversee the implementation of all other voting technology that will be integrated statewide in the coming years.

Visiting secretary of the state contenders at the recent forum included former Hartford councilwoman and current State Representative Evelyn Mantilla who has been campaigning for the post for months, but who only formally announced her candidacy two weeks ago.

Ms Mantilla was joined at the local meeting by hopefuls including newspaper publisher Norma Rodriguez Reyes, businessman and politician John Nussbaum, former Litchfield selectwoman Audrey Blondin, businessman and former Old Saybrook selectman Robert Landino, and another current state representative, Andrew Fleischmann.

After opening statements that included many thanks for anticipated support and biographical remarks (see Part 1 in last week’s Bee), the candidates each had select segments of time to answer particular questions posed by members of the audience, which consisted primarily of members of the local Democratic Town Committee and party members.

If It’s Not Broke…

When asked directly about what the candidates believe is “broken,” and the cost of programs to accomplish a fix, each candidate was hard-pressed to produce any significant criticism of Ms Bysiewicz or her staff.

“I’m the kind of person who looks at the glass half full,” Ms Blondin replied. “Susan Bysiewicz has done an outstanding job in [handling the proposals for new] technology, and in her support of small businesses.”

Ms Blondin said, if elected, that she would convene meetings in each Connecticut county to gather comments from voters, as well as town registrars and clerks, about electronic voting technology.

“I’ll go out to the people and get feedback from you,” Ms Blondin asserted.

Instead of addressing the question either directly or indirectly, Ms Mantilla chose instead to promote her plan to consider voting technology that is user friendly.

“It’s hugely important that we have a vision of the future, and to [integrate] advanced technology so voters will participate,” Ms Mantilla said. She also promised to visit local communities and to sponsor voter forums to speak about democracy for every individual in Connecticut.

Mr Nussbaum said that the biggest issue facing the next secretary of the state will be the kind of machines Connecticut will be voting on in the coming years.

“We must establish voter confidence with [the new] computer voting machines,” Mr Nussbaum said. “And we should include town clerks and registrars more than we have [in the technology selection process].”

Mr Nussbaum criticized direct recording electronic (DRE) machines, alleged to be the only machines among the current crop being considered by Ms Bysiewicz following an RFP issued earlier this year.

“DREs will be two times or three times as expensive to keep and train [election volunteers] on,” Mr Nussbaum said. “Optical scanning technology will foster the greatest [level of] voter confidence.”

Ms Reyes also praised Ms Bysiewicz, particularly for her promotion of business expos for local companies.

“I would make the [secretary of the state’s] office even more business friendly,” Ms Reyes said. “I would have volunteers similar to SCORE [Service Corps of Retired Executives] to advise people [starting small businesses], and help with forms.”

Ms Reyes said she would work to make the secretary of the state’s office more voter-friendly as well, saying the state should not disenfranchise voters by bringing on electronic technology that will intimidate residents instead of encouraging them to participate in the voting process.

Mr Landino agreed that the single issue before all secretary of the state contenders is the imminent transition to electronic voting. He was also the only candidate to propose a cost factor on improving relations between the secretary of the state’s office and small businesses.

“We need to improve the manner in which the secretary of the state’s office connects with small businesses for a nominal amount of money — less than $1 million,” Mr Landino said.

He proposed a system that would employ caseworkers who would individually help guide businesspeople through the troubleshooting process as they establish themselves.

“We can create a unique interface with small businesses in Connecticut,” Mr Ladino said.

Ticking off points one by one, Mr Fleischmann quickly counted down five areas where he believes the secretary of the state’s office shows room for improvement. They included improving and increasing voter registration opportunities, creating a campaign finance information network for less than $250,000 annually, enhancing “customer responsiveness in the small business division,” and “opening the process for voting technology selection.”

Electronic Voting Specifics

Another question asked candidates to address specifics when it comes to their overseeing integrating new voting technology.

Ms Blondin said that until recent legislation was passed, the secretary of the state’s office was considering DREs without necessarily stipulating the machines provide a paper trail and that she appreciated experts in the field of voting technology who have stepped forward advocating for optical scanning units as an alternative to the direct recording equipment.

“I do not support retiring all the lever voting machines either,” Ms Blondin said. “We should allow towns to make their own choices.”

Ms Mantilla said that as a software developer herself, she would personally oversee the design of systems for electronic voting.

“It is extremely critical that [voting technology] is accessible to everyone, and that it must [provide] a paper trail,” Ms Mantilla said. “We can come up with the right design if everybody involved is in on the design [process].”

Mr Nussbaum said the current secretary of the state needs to take a hard look at how she will spend the HAVA grant money, saying Ms Bysiewicz owes it to the voters and taxpayers of Connecticut to consider optical scan systems.

“We now have to look at the best technology to produce a paper trail,” Mr Nussbaum said. “[The legislation mandating verified paper trails] will render our mechanical machines obsolete.”

Ms Reyes said Connecticut communities should be allowed to keep mechanical voting machines as a backup system to be used concurrently with new electronic machines until all potential bugs are worked out of the new systems.

“One voter said to me, ‘what difference does it make about whatever machine you choose, they’re all made by Republicans anyway,’” Ms Reyes joked.

She was critical of rushing to integrate electronic technology, warning of possible manipulation of voting systems and software by young technicians and programmers, and said she would hold training sessions for voting place staff and voters themselves to ensure everyone was intimately familiar with new voting technology.

Mr Landino was critical of the short timeline federal voting legislation permitted for integrating technology purchased through HAVA grants.

“The machines that have been proven to be fully [handicapped] accessible have proven not to be effective,” Mr Landino said. “We need to develop a high level strategy plan to accomplish [the move to electronic voting].”

Mr Fleischmann said he advocates the legal adoption of open source code technology that he said will help ensure that hardware or software manipulation cannot be achieved.

Closing the forum, First Selectman Herb Rosenthal expressed disdain for the current secretary of the state for “dragging her feet” during the technology selection process, while praising the crop of candidates who came to Newtown to state their views.

“This is the finest collective group I may have ever seen vying for office,” Mr Rosenthal concluded.