Local Registrar Files Elections Complaints Against Town Clerk

By John Voket

Democratic Registrar of Voters LeReine Frampton filed two letters of complaint against Republican Town Clerk Debbie Aurelia in late June, which the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC) will review before considering whether to hold a formal hearing on any of Ms Frampton’s concerns.

In the first of two documents received by the SEEC June 23, Ms Frampton acknowledges that her daughter, Sara Frampton “unsuccessfully challenged Debbie Aurelia for Town Clerk last November. This complaint is being filed because of Debbie’s actions.”

The registrar goes on to state that prior to the last general election in November 2009, she turned in an absentee ballot for a family friend, which apparently was never registered, because, Ms Frampton contends, “That ballot never made the check off list.” Ms Frampton then complained that Ms Aurelia reentered a polling place last Election Day after she cast her votes — a violation of the state’s no reentry law.

In the complaint, Ms Frampton states that the town clerk reentered the polling place “to bring her son, a poll worker, lunch and I made her aware of the law and told her to call her son and have him come outside the 75 feet to meet with her.”

Ms Frampton then contends that before the third 2010 budget referendum, Ms Aurelia began issuing absentee ballots after the Legislative Council approved the final budget proposal and set a date for the third vote — but before the date of that third referendum was officially set by the Board of Selectmen at a town meeting.

That first of two letters of complaint also introduces an incident in which Ms Frampton alleges the Republican Registrar Karin Aurelia attempted to strike information about the aforementioned reentry violation from the poll moderator’s diary. Karin Aurelia is the mother of the town clerk.

In a second letter of complaint, Ms Frampton states that in 2008 overseas ballots were missing a minor presidential candidate. She added that after corrected ballots were provided, the town clerk authorized issuing the wrong ballots, as well as issuing one “to a voter the Saturday before the election when the voter came in to vote in person.”

Then again in 2009, Ms Frampton alleges that an, “Overseas Blank Ballot was sent with inaccurate list of candidates.” Also in 2009, Ms Frampton complained that “Absentee ballots went out with incorrect spelling of a candidate’s last name which was discovered mid October.”

She stated that same ballot also contained another misprint regarding how many Board of Selectmen candidates to choose.

In 2008, Ms Frampton accuses Ms Aurelia of telling a Democratic campaign manager to download absentee applications from the Internet, versus providing them directly to the individual, Sarah Hemingway, who was the campaign manager for the Christopher Lyddy statehouse campaign.

Ms Hemingway recently filed her own set of complaints to the SEEC regarding improprieties on the part of Rep Lyddy’s current challenger, Chris LaRocque (see separate story).

During the most recent Presidential primary in 2008, Ms Frampton accuses the town clerk of issuing absentee ballots and accepting party enrollment forms after the deadline to close that process had passed. She also states during that primary that the town clerk initially told a poll worker that she could not change her absentee ballot vote after a candidate dropped out of the race.

In 2008, Ms Frampton states that “there were over 200 more absentee ballots than were accounted for on the town clerk’s list.” The complaint goes on to say that “the night before the Presidential election Ann Benore (assistant town clerk) and I worked until 12:15 am trying to reconcile the abs ballots,” without ever stating if the issue was resolved.

She also states that during the time when the town clerk was still operating from Edmond Town Hall, “legal documents entrusted to the town clerk’s care are being left about the office instead of protected in the vault or they are disappearing.”

Ms Frampton said voter check off lists were left on the corner of an assistant’s desk for months, and she personally asked Ms Aurelia to put them in the vault several times. Also, Ms Frampton complained that prior to moving into new town offices, absentee ballots were left all over one corner of the room in open boxes right near the computer used by citizens to look up land records.

Finally, she stated that moderator returns disappear.

“Debbie says she did not get them yet she prepares a summary sheet with voter numbers and percentages as well as the winners and their totals,” the registrar’s complaint alleges. “This can only come from the moderator returns.”

Ms Aurelia told The Newtown Bee that she was asked by her counsel to not discuss the allegations with the press, but she said a response to the complaint was filed with the SEEC. Several messages left with the town attorney regarding the response were not returned as the newspaper went to press Thursday.

And the SEEC said that since the response would be considered evidence in a pending investigation, it was not accessible under the Connecticut Freedom of Information statute.