Extended Voter Registration Session Sept. 1

The session will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. at city hall, 245 deKoven Drive in Room B15 in the lower level. Normally, the registrar's office closes at 4:30 pm daily. 

The purpose is it to provide extra time for citizens in case they wish to register/ check/ change party affiliation to vote in the upcoming Democratic primary. Only registered Democrats can vote in the special primary Sept. 13. Anyone not registered to vote may register at this session regardless if affiliation Sept. 1. 

Anyone with questions is asked to call the registrar's office at 860 638 4960

Middletown Election Results: M-town is Blue, Red Rosa still Creepy

Middletown Ct Election 2014 Results: 10:00 pm UPDATE: Some districts in Middletown still have not reported numbers. Middletown High district 3 & 6 included. Witnesses confirm democrats rounded up folks at the soup kitchen & homeless in the north end today promising a hot meal & took them to the polls in a last effort push. Reports that over 500 Wesleyan students, most registering as democrats, were added as new voters in the final days before the election. Local Democrats & the Malloy campaign bused students to the polls from campus today. No word if meals were purchased for students by Democrats, as was done in the last cycle. Currently, the change to a 4 year term for mayor & common council as part of Middletown's Charter is looking likely based on reporting districts. Foley & Malloy are too close to call in Middletown at this time. The unofficial turnout hovers at 59% we are hearing from early estimates.

11:35 pm UPDATE: Szynkowicz conceded to Serra at 8:57 pm and offered her congratulations on his victory in person at City Hall. Fernandez conceded to Lesser at 10 pm & also congratulated him in the Council Chambers where Lesser watched votes being tabulated. Earlier Roberts conceded to incumbent Doyle. At this time final votes have not been tabulated from all districts. Bartolomeo remains in a slight lead over Suzio at this hour, however neither has conceded. Absentee ballots are also still being counted. No numbers yet on previously unreported districts.

12:00 am: UPDATE: At Council Chambers the tabulation scene was still chaotic well after 11:00 pm. The numbers from the registrars are being projected on the smallest screen available seemed all the more confusing with the excel spread sheet having missing cell formulas delaying the effort. The process seems antiquated. Vote counting is done publicly to be transparent; but the room filled with politicos & reporters gabbing makes it a long event. Finally all the numbers are in; we defer to the spread offered by the Courant below. 

2:00 am: UPDATE: No official results, available at the link embedded, have been filed with the Secretary of State for Middletown. Below are unofficial results published by the Hartford Courant. At 1:39 am Gov. Malloy declared himself the victor based on his campaign leaders' projections. 

Conclusions: 

1. Middletown might be D 3 to 1 but after Red Rosa visited in person last week at the Westfield forum, it was James Brown who stole our hearts proving M-town finds Delauro's antics creepy.  So far (based on early results), the only conservative to go the distance locally, & that he did! We'll done Mr. Brown.  

2.  In all other races the D's trumped the R's. Rumors of shenanigans are rampant. Candidates leaning over the screens of vote counters seems wrong.It was reported by a few that there was a party affiliated wearing a Malloy tee shirt assisting same day registrants in the lobby of City Hall earlier in the day causing moderators to repeatedly ask the person to remove such or vacate the area, which he refuses. Republican sign holders being unfairly questioned well outside the 75 ft radius from the polls, while the D's appeared to have carte blanche. D's Illegally posted signs on the grounds of the senior center, a public housing authority property. One would have hoped that with such a majority, the D's would take their victory with dignity,but hey, this is Middletown!
In reality, the locally running R's should be extremely proud- they have come closer than any others in recent past to the career politicians they challenged & exposed many truths about the incumbents in the process.

3.  D's will use free goodies for votes. Not quite legal, but it works.

4. How does Roberts get no votes? Did he not vote for himself!!? Something is up here. Seriously, this can't be true. And no write-ins reported? Call Councilman Bauer now!

5. The mayor's AIDE will drop Mayor Drew off places so he can campaign on the public dime all day, but keep the mayor mobile parked at City Hall like he's doing work.

6. No one has found any bags of uncounted absentee ballots yet giving a Malloy victory in Middletown, but $5 says it could still happen in Hartford ...

Middletown

GOVERNOR

CANDIDATE	VOTES	TOTAL VOTE PERCENT
Dan Malloy AND Nancy Wyman	8,052		59.0%
Joseph Visconti AND Chester Frank Harris	155		1.1%
Tom Foley AND Heather Somers	5,443		39.9%

COMPTROLLER

CANDIDATE	VOTES	TOTAL VOTE PERCENT
Sharon McLaughlin	4,398		36.0%
Rolf Maurer	205		1.7%
Kevin Lembo	7,603		62.3%

UPPER HOUSE, DISTRICT 13

CANDIDATE	VOTES	TOTAL VOTE PERCENT
Len Suzio	2,146		42.6%
Danté Bartolomeo	2,893		57.4%

UPPER HOUSE, DISTRICT 9

CANDIDATE	VOTES	TOTAL VOTE PERCENT
Earle Roberts	0		0%
Paul R. Doyle	4,146		100.0%

ATTORNEY GENERAL

CANDIDATE	VOTES	TOTAL VOTE PERCENT
Stephen Fournier	264		2.1%
George C. Jepsen	8,101		65.8%
Kie Westby	3,952		32.1%

BALLOT MEASURE

CANDIDATE	VOTES	TOTAL VOTE PERCENT
No	6,416		50.5%
Yes	6,287		49.5%

HOUSE (US), DISTRICT 1

CANDIDATE	VOTES	TOTAL VOTE PERCENT
Matthew Corey	610		37.3%
Jeffery Russell	21		1.3%
John B. Larson	1,003		61.4%

HOUSE (US), DISTRICT 3

CANDIDATE	VOTES	TOTAL VOTE PERCENT
James Brown	2,899		85.2%
Rosa L. DeLauro	505		14.8%

LOWER HOUSE, DISTRICT 100

CANDIDATE	VOTES	TOTAL VOTE PERCENT
Angel Fernandez	2,138		29.9%
Matthew L. Lesser	5,005		70.1%

LOWER HOUSE, DISTRICT 33

CANDIDATE	VOTES	TOTAL VOTE PERCENT
Joseph C. Serra	3,347		63.4%
Linda Szynkowicz	1,931		36.6%

SECRETARY OF STATE

CANDIDATE	VOTES	TOTAL VOTE PERCENT
Denise Merrill	7,858		60.1%
Mike DeRosa	369		2.8%
Peter Lumaj	4,839		37.0%

TREASURER

CANDIDATE	VOTES	TOTAL VOTE PERCENT
Tim Herbst	4,842		40.8%
Denise L. Nappier	7,029		59.2%

Precincts reporting: 14 out of 14 (100.0%)

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Former Mayor Drew Campaign Manager & Rep. Geoff Luxenburg Accused of Voter Harassment, Not News to Middletown!

Rep. Geoff Luxenburg (D), former Mayor Dan Drew campaign manager
 being accused of voter intimidation & "combativiness" towards the Registrar of voters   in Manchester as well as elderly voters.

Chicago-style politics in CT - not news to Middletown where Rep. Geoff Luxenberg was Mayor Drew's campaign manager in 2011 and faced similar allegations.

The Manchester Registrar office has filed a complaint with the SEEC - State Elections Enforcement Committee alleging that Luxenburg harassed the Registrar of Voters in Manchester. The complaint alleges Luxenburg was "combative and negative" among it's  laundry list of accusations.

It is alleged that Mr. Luxenburg harassed two Registrars AND elderly voters. One registrar claims to have gotten a complaint the Luxenburg went to an sick and elderly womans house 3x to get her to vote via absentee.The bed-ridden citizen then made a complaint to the Registrar about Luxenburgs behavior asking the Registrar to ask Luxenburg to leave her alone.

http://www.courant.com/community/manchester/hc-manchester-lux-complaint-1025-20131024,0,2099254.story

If proven true, voter intimidation/fraud, (which harassment of a registrar or voter falls under),  is a felony that can carry a 5 year prison term.

 Last local election cycle, Wesleyan College Democrat chairs & Democratic Town Committee members Gabriela De Golia and Ben Florsheim (Florsheim shoe company heir) filed accusations with the SEEC falsely accusing the Republican Registrar of Middletown and GOP candidates of voter intimidation as an attempt to smear the campaign. The SEEC dismissed all accusations as false. The judge actually ruled all three accused were promoting voting. Neither the DTC or Florsheim have issued apologies for their false accusations that carried felony penalties.

Flash back to Middletown 2011 & Office of the Registrar of Voters: 
Is this Luxenburgs first instance of election intimidation and alleged bad behavior?

In an article last year posted by the Middletown Eye written by Sterphen DeVoto (now a candidate on P&Z running with the Democratic slate), Devoto writes about alleged interrogations & harassing behavior towards the Town Clerk and Registrars of Voters by Luxenburg. Devoto writes:

"According to Tommasi, the Drew campaign then further escalated the interrogations and challenges. Most of this came from Geoff Luxenberg, the recently elected State Representative from Manchester, employed as Drew’s campaign manager. Luxenberg communicated with Tommasi in a series of emailed questions (see links below). Tommasi said that the questions made her very uncomfortable because they seemed to challenge her impartiality, “They raked me over the coals.” In one exchange, Luxenberg seemed to question why Democratic Town Committee endorsed candidates on the primary ballot could not serve as election workers."

Tommasi volunteered to meet face to face with Luxenberg, to resolve any issues and to avoid the possible misinterpretations that written emails can engender. She said the Drew campaign “refused to meet face to face”, apparently preferring the written record that emails would create."

The original article by Devoto can be read here in its entirety:

Democratic Registrar Of Voters Objects To Drew Campaign Actions

Subsequently, after defending her impartiality, Democratic Registrar Anne Tomassi was fired by the Democratic Town Commitee as Democratic Registrar and kicked her off their town commitee. The Republicans then appointed Tommassi as the GOP deputy registrar.

Then Town Clerk Sandra Russo-Driska ( since retired & now a Republican Common Council candidate) defended the actions of the Registrars, and wrote a public letter rebuking the behavior of the Drew 2011 Campaign and its treatment of the Registrar's in Middletown.

CT Dems seem to be adopting Chicago methods of intimidation on local level - is this the next generation of CT Dem leadership?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/hc-manchester-lux-complaint-1025-20131024,0,2908801.story

Wesleyan Students Kicked out of Museum: WTNH.com

 Nation College Democrat President,  WesDem chair & shoe fortune heir student  Wesleyan student Ben Florsheim ('14) was reportedly NOT at the Science Center. Florsheim and the Middletown Democratic Town Committee  helped to registrar over 400 Wesleyan students to vote in 2011 for the municipal elections (a right granted by the  Supreme Court). Florsheim is a veteran of the Dannel Malloy campaign for Governor. Florsheim received an award from Wesleyan for distributing flyers falsely accusing some local GOP candidates, a local police officer, and the registrar of voters of felony voter intimidation during the 2011 election cycle. The State Elections Enforcement Commission subsequently ruled that those same local GOP members were actually encouraging student voting . 
Despite having ruled his accusation unfounded and quite the opposite, Florsheim was allowed to keep his award given by Wesleyan faculty.
Florsheim now a member of the MDTC, has since worked on various CT campaigns, will he return to run for local office or work on municipal campaigns in November?

Repost from Source: http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/middlesex_cty/wesleyan-students-kicked-out-of-museum-for-sex-and-drugs#.USPzPI5j6-J  (see site for video)

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (WTNH) -- Things got a little out of hand for a group of Wesleyan seniors at the Connecticut Science Center. They say they got kicked out after being there just a few hours.

Sex and drugs are just some of the things that allegedly got Wesleyan seniors kicked out of a science museum.

As college comes to a close, Wesleyan University seniors plan several events to bring the class together.

"It's a fun atmosphere. You're with your entire class, it's always supposed to be a good time," said senior Kaya Ceci.

The parties are called senior cocktails and usually happen at a bar but last week's event was held at the Connecticut science center and it did not go well. These seniors were there...

"Spilling alcoholic beverages," said senior Andrew Pfiffer. "Just way too much expensive equipment to have around some crazy college people."

Students tell us the science center shindig lasted less than 2 hours. Students were allegedly found doing drugs and having sex in bathrooms. At least one senior allegedly climbed a dinosaur exhibit and there are reports of vomiting off of a flight of stairs.

"The things that happened were sort of ridiculous," said sophomore Sage Ryza.

Still, students say don't blame them, blame poor planning.

"It was kind of a questionable plan to bring a bunch of people to a science museum where there is definitely drinking going on," said Charlie Smith.

"Apparently they've done other events in the past before and stuff and the events were for other age groups and then you put a bunch of students as opposed to AARP members, you're going to get a different reaction," said Christopher Caines.

"It was a bad idea and I am sorry to the staff of the science center," said Pfiffer.

News 8 did stop by the science center. Though some staffers said off camera that they knew of the alleged incidents, the center declined to comment.

Voter Registration Deadline Extended

10/30/2012 - Voter Registration Deadline postponed till November 1st at 8:00PM

In response to the dangerous weather impacting the state from Hurricane Sandy, Governor Dannel P. Malloy on Sunday evening signed an executive order extending the in-person voter registration deadline in Connecticut to Thursday, November 1, at 8 p.m. for those who intend to vote in the upcoming election.  The deadline had originally been scheduled for Tuesday, October 30, at 8 p.m.

 http://www.cityofmiddletown.com/controls/NewsFeed.aspx?FeedID=194