Thursday, June 14, 2012

State Elections Commission Throws Out Allegations of Voter Fraud Against City Officials made by Wesleyan Student

The full document of the complaint & ruling is here:
 https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1OYjxtLEgUwUElDbEJGRUE0QWs/edit?pli=1

Florsheim, Blumenthal, De Golia, photo from Middletown Patch, by C. Day
Wesleyan student  and Windsor CT native, Paulina Jones-Torregrosa filed a complaint with the State Elections Enforcement Commission accusing local City officials Incumbent Mayoral Candidate Sebastian Giuliano, Registrar of Voters Janice Gionfriddo (R), Registrar Anne Tommassi (D), and then candidate now Planning & Zoning Commissioner Molly Salafia of voter intimidation  & fraud during the last local election held in November 2011. Jones-Torregrosa alleges that by allowing students at the University who in the past were allowed to register to vote with P.O Box's to change this to an on campus address as it was found by the SEEC &  State Attorney General to be necessary by law, would cause undo steps for the students and impede their voting rights. The student alleges that by trying to help students remedy this before the election, the incumbent Mayor and Registrar's from both parties were committing voter fraud. The student also alleges that a letter  to a local blog by Salafia that was found by the SEEC to actually encourage  the voting students, and to vote across party lines (see last page of document above) was in her opinion voter intimidation and should be punishable by a felony fine and  mandatory imprisonment. The SEEC dismissed all allegations by the student, and in its conclusions, states that the Commission feels all were trying to help in making voting easier; the opposite of what Jones-Torregrosa alleges. It is unknown at the time if Jones-Torregrosa is or was a member of the Wesleyan College Democrats who  handed out flyers & wrote press releases along side student presidents Gabriela DeGolia and Ben Florsheim stating that the same accused persons were trying to intimidate students and encouraging student voters not to vote for them. Florsheim and DeGolia worked with various campus groups to mass register over 400 Wesleyan students and bus some of them to the polls for the last municipal elections.  Florsheim, who is president of the National College Democrats, claimed that the registering of students and bussing was a non partisan issue, but was quoted in the Wes Argus in September of 2011 that he and the Wesleyan Democrats would do everything possible to assist the Drew campaign. http://wesleyanargus.com/2011/04/29/students-prepare-for-mayoral-race/ Florsheim and DeGolia have since joined the local Democratic Town Committee.

11 comments:

  1. Even though their flimsy allegations had no merit; the damage was done and Seb was denied a new post.

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  2. Her allegations are ridiculous! A ploy to get Drew elected and it worked. She could have ruined four peoples lives.

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  3. How sad is it that even Giuliano is looking better than Drew?

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  4. Persons who do not reside in a town permanently should not be allowed to vote in local elections. Vote by absentee ballot in your home town. How can you have the audacity to make decisions for a town and it’s residents and leave them with the fallout at the end of the semester?

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  5. Why were the findings of the SEEC graded an F?

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  6. I love your photoshops!

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  7. I love your photoshops!

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  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. The complaint is graded an F because it resulted in the exact opposite findings of which the person who made the complaint intended. Another attempt by local Democrats ( a very orchestrated attempt) to intimidate those with opposing views from speaking out. Good catch on that alternate interpretation though! Thank you for pointing it out- the ruling it self was an A++!

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  10. Oh ok. Thanks for the explanation! Just curious, what does the SEEC have to do with people with opposing views speaking out? Thanks for your witty blog posts and pictures!

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  11. I like this blog, I don't care what the left says about anything anymore. THey are the ones who are the 1% and continue to tell people to: "do what I say and no what I do." It's not like all of us can own a winery on the West Coast, send our daughter to an expensive boarding school in Wallingford, live on a local farm (tax reasons anybody)and appear to be objective when you write your pieces. NOT! With all that money people tend to get disconnected to what is really going on around us. If the left rally wants to help locally, perhaps they should persuaded the members of Middletown's BOE to release their budget in its entirely so the public can see. Oh, right, that is what their platform was during the November 2011 election and then when a few of their own were elected, the issue of transparency doesn't matter. That my friends is called political hypocrisy at it's finest.

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