Former Mayor asks Town Clerk For 3,000 Absentee Ballots For Referendum

According to Berlin Town Clerk Kate Wall, former Berlin Mayor Paul Argazzi has asked for 3,000 absentee ballots for the March 15 referendum on the Berlin High School “renovate as new” plan.

“He asked for 3,000 ballots,” Wall said. “The law says there is no limit to the amount of ballots you can take out but if you distribute more than five you have to keep a log and they have to be numbered. He said he was taking them out for the Berlin Republican Town Committee. We didn’t have that many here so we got permission to copy them and we are numbering them now.”

The Secretary of State page says of absentee ballots: “This application for absentee ballot may be downloaded by an individual for: (1) the individual's own use; (2) the use of a member of the individual's immediate family; or (3) the use of a designee of the applicant. Any person who will distribute five (5) or more absentee ballot applications to persons other than the individual's immediate family must register with and obtain forms from the Town Clerk of the municipality where such forms will be distributed before distributing such forms.”

Argazzi said “I haven’t done anything. The ballots are being numbered. If I do take them out there will be names filed in accordance with the law and a statement will be made at that time.”

While Argazzi said he hasn’t done anything, he has spun the Town Clerk’s office into action and also put the Registrars of Voters on alert.

The last time the referendum was voted on, 55 absentee ballots were returned. For the Presidential election, 925 were returned and for the last November election which included Governor, 425 were returned. She said there have been about a hundred taken out for the upcoming special election between Republican Tim Stewart and Democrat Terry Gerratana for the vacant 6th District Senate seat on Feb. 22.

“To have 3,000 absentee ballots would obviously be a lot,” Wall said. “We wouldn’t do it for a regular election because it would be too time consuming. For us, it is quicker and cheaper to count them by hand. We would have to slice open the first envelope and make sure the outside name matches the signature. Then we have to slice open the second envelope and put it on a pile of either “Yes” or “No.” For a normal election, we start counting absentee ballots at about 6 p.m. I don’t anticipate all 3,000 coming back in.”

There are criteria for voting by absentee ballot within the state constitution, which is what the town follows in elections matters. You have to be ill or absent from town on the day of the election.

“There is a proposal at the state level to open this up so people could vote by absentee ballot regardless of their circumstance,” Wall said. “I believe people are honest. I like to hope that if they fill out an absentee ballot that they are either too ill to get to the polls or they will be out of the area, like someone in the military or a college student.”

The question before voters will read this way with a simple “Yes” or “No” answer to be selected.

"Shall the $69,950,000 appropriation and bond issuance authorization for the renovation and expansion of Berlin High School (expected to be paid from an estimated $22,621,830 State grant and $47,328,170 from Town general obligation bonds) as adopted by ordinance of the Town Council, be approved?