Wrong Absentee Ballots Sent To Some Stratford Voters

STRATFORD, CT — Over 40 Stratford residents may have cast votes in the wrong state representative race after receiving incorrect ballots.

Stratford officials were rushing to fix the error Wednesday, after learning 45 people in the 1111 Stratford apartment complex submitted absentee ballots with the improper state representative race.

“We’re doing everything we can,” said Lou DeCilio, Republican registrar of voters, noting election officials were contacting residents and hand-delivering the proper ballots.

The impacted voters live in the 121st District, where state Rep. Joe Gresko is running against Republican challenger Ed Scinto, a longtime member of various town commissions. The voters wrongly received ballots for the 120th District, where state Rep. Phil Young is hoping to keep his seat in a race against Republican and former town councilman Jim Feehan.

Prior to the construction of five apartment buildings in 2013, the property where the affected complex is located was a car dealership, and therefore not an address where voters resided, according to DeCilio.

“This could have been a problem that has been around for decades, it just never was picked up,” he said, adding it’s possible voters cast ballots for the wrong district in previous elections.

Residents of Henry Avenue Extension in Stratford were also found to have received ballots for the 120th District instead of the 121st District, according to DeCilio, who said the street includes about five houses and that affected voters would be contacted and offered new ballots.

“We wish we’d have caught it earlier, obviously,” DeCilio said. “… The good thing is that we caught it.”

The 120th District was also affected by a ballot mistake in 2018, when more than 70 voters in the 120th District on Election Day received ballots for the 122nd District as a result of human error. Young defeated Feehan by a mere 13 votes in the 120th District that year, and the aftermath of the mistake went on for months as the question of how to address the issue was presented to legislative and judicial bodies, but a special election was never held, according to previous media reports.