Fasano: Attorney General Tong Refuses to Investigate Voter Disenfranchisement in CT, More Interested in Washington Politics

Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano (R-North Haven) released the following statement in response to Attorney General William Tong refusing to launch an investigation into the failure of the absentee ballot system in Connecticut’s primary election, at the same time Attorney General Tong has joined another partisan federal lawsuit announced today under the guise of protecting voter rights.

Attorney General Tong sent a letter to Sen. Fasano late yesterday denying his request for the Attorney General’s office to investigate the failures of the primary absentee ballot system that led to delays and people not receiving their ballots on time and having their votes at risk for not being counted. Instead, today Attorney General Tong announced plans to join a partisan lawsuit related to the U.S. Postal Service.

“At the same time Attorney General Tong is playing Washington politics, he is refusing to investigate people losing their right to vote here in Connecticut. He can’t blame the failures of the primary election in Connecticut on the post office. It is clear that those failures fall entirely on the shoulders of the Secretary of the State. Secretary Merrill’s third party mail house missed multiple deadlines, did not comply with state statute, and failed to send ballots to at least 20,000 people pushing the responsibility onto town clerks at the last minute. According to Secretary Merrill’s own reported estimates that only 98% of people who requested an absentee ballot received one, that means approximately 6,000 people were denied their right to an absentee ballot and either didn’t vote, or put their health at risk to vote in person when they had reason to request and vote absentee. There were people who requested ballots in Connecticut’s primary weeks ago didn’t receive their ballots or received them after they had already left town and it was too late for them to vote. That was not the post office failing. In fact, the Governor’s executive order that allowed ballots placed in the mail on election day to be counted two days later acknowledges that the post office was trusted to get all those ballots submitted on time. What failed was the Secretary of the State’s system she created of her own volition, and which the Attorney General is refusing to investigate. Attorney General Tong’s claims that his office ‘will always protect and defend the rights of voters’ is obviously nothing but lip service. He is failing to do his job and opting to play politics yet again.”