Hartford City Council Won't Appeal Ruling on Registrars

 The Hartford City Council won’t appeal a judge’s recent ruling that the city’s elected officials lack the authority to remove registrars for office and now they are planning to meet with state lawmakers in the hopes of preventing an election fiasco that the capital city went through last November.

The unanimous vote on Monday night not to appeal the ruling is the latest chapter in a saga that began in November when issues plagued the General Election in the capital city.

On the morning of Nov. 4, Hartford polling places weren't ready with voter registration lists, workers had not been properly trained, and the combination of issues resulted in long lines and would-be voters walking out without casting their ballots.

“We’ve decided not to appeal the court’s decision, although we believe it’s wrong,” City Council President Shawn T. Wooden. “With that said, we want to focus and hopefully now this underscores the need for legislative action at the State Capitol that this is a significant problem and we’ve done as much as we can at the local level at this point.”

He said the city council has been on a journey to fix the problems with the election system and will be asking for a meeting with state lawmakers to take up the issue on a statewide level.

The council also voted, 8 to 1, to approve a negotiated settlement with registrar Urania Petit, who withdrew a lawsuit against the city last week and submitted her resignation. 

“The decision is not 100 percent where we want it to be, but it is a step in the right direction, and so the majority of the council decided to move forward with that and to pursue legislative changes at the state capitol to reform our registrar voter system,” Wooden said.

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