Secretary of the State Denise Merrill's Channel 3 Song & Dance

Denise Merrill

The opening segment with Secretary of the State Denise Merrill on Channel 3's Meet the State program from a week ago, preceding discussion with Libertarian Party representative Larry Sharpe and Green Party of CT's Cora Santaguida (State Coordinator for the Jill Stein campaign; State Senate candidate in the 27th District), was as embarrassingly fawning as it was lacking in relevant detail: Merrill attempted to claim a "save" over the fact that a few years ago when Bridgeport polls didn't have enough ballot forms on hand, it was supposed to be to the system's credit that on-site copies were quickly printed so that people could cast their votes.

Such overblown claims of her department's flexibility during a 2014 "crisis" overlooks the fact that it is hard to see how the number of sheets needed for any municipality is hard to get wrong in advance, given that they would naturally use the same number used to send reminder notices to all registered voters in the area in the days prior to the CT governor's race. Yes, mistakes happen (although they happen too often in areas predominantly non-white). What she failed to mention was that the scanners did not accept the copies.

Of course, the fact that write-in votes were not counted in Stamford, Hartford, Bridgeport (again) and other cities in 2012 resulting in no legal consequences for those doing the tallying, even though such an oversight constitutes a felony, was also not discussed, among other important issues regarding the state's electoral process.