All But 2 Minor Party Candidates off Nov. Ballot After Signature Error

Nearly all of Middletown's Realistic Balance candidates are ineligible to appear on the November ballot due to a filing technicality that has knocked third parties off the rolls across Connecticut.

Town Clerk Linda Bettencourt says paperwork filed in her office did not meet the requirements of a 2011 state election law change.

The signatures of only mayoral candidate and party secretary John Kilian and common council hopeful and Realistic Balance chair Fred Carroll were on the endorsement document. 

A change to the requirement for petitioning party candidates in July 2011, Bettencourt says, requires that the signatures of minority party candidates appear on the document filed with her office.

"When it came out that these are not candidates' signatures, it spread like a firestorm," Bettencourt says. "This is happening statewide. Middletown happened to get dragged into it."

There is some criticism of the secretary of the state's office that town clerks were not sufficiently reminded of the change prior to the filing deadline. Communications Director for Secretary of the State Denise Merrill's office Av Harris spoke to Ridgefield Patch earlier this week.

"I know there is a lot of talk among town clerks that our office failed to inform them that signatures were required along with minor party endorsements, but in fact we did inform all town clerks and registrars of voters in the state of this change in the law when it happened in 2011. 

"In addition to that, we have done subsequent training with the town clerks about this and other election related matters at the town clerk conferences and at training events for newly elected town clerks," Harris says.

This signature requirement, approved since the 2011 election, is being enforced only this year in Connecticut.

Bettencourt says she can't explain why. 

Minor party candidates also failed to get the signatures in time to make the ballot in the towns of Ridgefield, Easton, Fairfield, East Hampton, Bethel and Simsbury this year.

Harris clarified his office's position to Middletown Patch late last week. "According to the state, this is what you need. If you don't have the signatures, then the nomination is not valid."

Bettencourt says although she knew last week about the election law change she didn't think it applied in Middletown. That was until Republican Board of Education candidates Linda Szynkowicz, Sheila Daniels, Brian Kaskel and Bill Wilson resigned from the Realistic Party nomination.

After their regular meeting Wednesday, Bettencourt was told the four candidates didn't know they had been placed on the ballot.

Wilson, Middletown Republican Town Committee vice chair, says the Republican candidates who declined the Realistic Balance endorsements did so on principal. "We agreed to run as a team," Wilson says, and since no Republicans attended the August caucus, they didn't have an opportunity to reject their nominations until September's meeting.

Republican David Bauer declined his common council nomination late last week. 

If not for this disqualification, the Realistic Balance ticket would comprise Republicans councilmen Phil Pessina and Joseph Bibisi and planning and zoning commission candidate Jeremy Clark and Democrat Stephen DeVoto, who won the Sept. 10 planning and zoning primary.

Still, nearly every Realistic Balance candidate is on the November ballot under other parties, Bettencourt says. "The only one this will impact is Stephen Smith," a Democrat whose caucus failed to nominate him. He also didn't receive a Working Families nod.

Kilian says these disqualifications knocks off the majority of his party's slates.

"When he filed his paperwork with the town clerk on Aug. 28, the day after his party's caucus, Kilian asked if everything was in order and was told "yes," he says. "I don't think I should know more than [Bettencourt]."

"It's not my job to question an endorsement," Bettencourt says. 

"I'm not the one who interprets. She's the authority," Kilian says.

"He's full of prunes," Bettencourt says. "Do not lay this at the town clerk's door. You, as the town committee secretary, are responsible. You know the law and what is required of you."

Kilian calls these rulings "a loss of political privilege," since there is no formal document for minor parties to complete, not to mention that Democrats and Republicans don't have similar requirements.

"There is no form. If they're going to kick people off the ballot, the least they could do is show us a form that's easy to follow," Kilian says, adding he understands the filing deadline was Sept. 4.

"Unfortunately, it's not that simple. I have to answer to the secretary of the state and their laws," Bettencourt says.

This isn't the last of the issue statewide and certainly in Middletown. Kilian says Carroll is pursuing legal action through Middletown Superior Court and had the paperwork notarized Thursday afternoon at the town clerk's office.