The dispute has to do with what's called supervised absentee balloting.
Citing concerns over absentee ballot voting, embattled Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra is threatening legal action to ensure that all votes in Wednesday's Democratic primary are properly counted.
For the second year in a row, there are concerns about voting in Hartford. Last year, some polling places didn't open on time. This year, the dispute has to do with what's called supervised absentee balloting.
State law allows local registrars of voters to designate some apartment buildings or institutions as supervised sites. The effect of that is to send an election official to a site to make sure that people who need support in completing their absentee ballots get it. But Segarra, who is trying to beat the Democratic endorsed candidate Luke Bronin, now says the rules on how to administer those sites were changed late in the game.
In a letter to the city and the state election monitor appointed to oversee Hartford's voting, an attorney for the campaign said a number of sites were recently taken off the list of supervised absentee ballot sites without warning. That change followed correspondence from the office of the secretary of the state.
Cody Guarnieri is Segarra's campaign lawyer.
"It really creates a concern that these apartment buildings, that there are individuals there that are expecting the registrar, or somebody from the registrar's office to come, will now be receiving their ballots in the mail possibly in the eleventh hour and then expected to fill them out and return them in a timely manner so as to be counted," Guarnieri said.
Hartford's clerk's office said that 1,346 absentee ballots have gone out on time, and 69 percent have been returned. The clerk said that number is consistent with previous years. But Guarnieri is nevertheless concerned.
Leon Rosenblatt is a lawyer representing the city's Democratic Registrar Olga Vazquez.
"I have heard that there is some fear that a few people may have lost the chance to vote," Rosenblatt said. "That may be true. That may not be true. All I can say is that, if the Segarra campaign brings it up as an issue, it's going to have to be taken pretty darn seriously."
Meanwhile, the secretary of the state's office said it provided the necessary instruction to the city.
