Hartford's registrar has filed a complaint in court as the city moves forward with plans to remove her after issues at the polls this past election, according to her attorney.
Olga Vazquez filed a complaint against the city of Hartford and the Court of Common Council, including Kyle Anderson, Alexander Aponte, Joel Cruz, Jr., Raul de Jesus Jr., Cynthia Renee Jennings, Kenneth H. Kennedy Jr., David MacDonald and Shawn T. Wooden, arguing that a section in Hartford's charter allowing the removal of elected officials defies Connecticut's constitution and is therefore illegal, according to the complaint filed March 28. The provision is in Section 3a, Chapter IV of the city's 2002 charter revision.
The complaint also requests an injunction against the council to halt them from plans to remove her from her position as the Democratic registrar of voters in Hartford because "the Common Council does not possess the legal authority to remove elected officials," according to the court documents. A hearing is scheduled for April 7 on the subject of removing Vazquez as registrar.
The removal proceedings stem from issues at Hartford polling places Nov. 4, 2014, such as running out of ballots and delays, that led to an extension of voting beyond the usual 8 p.m. end time. The plan to remove her as registrar is due to the claim that she was responsible for the voting delays, according to the court documents.
Vazquez is blaming the delays on budget cuts and said funds were no longer available that would have funded hiring 8 to 10 more temporary employees to work the polls as needed, according to the court documents. Instead, the budget only covered hiring six more at most, the documents said.
Her complaint requesting an injunction would stop the council from removing her from her role as registrar until a court determined whether the action is illegal and unconstitutional so that the "status quo" could be preserved in the meantime.
