Merrill: Staff able to handle elections after her departure
Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said Wednesday that her office will be “readily” equipped to oversee the 2022 elections — including the choice of her future successor — following her decision to step down this week in order to care for her ailing husband.
Merrill’s resignation, which she said will become effective at noon on Thursday, requires Gov. Ned Lamont to appoint an interim secretary to oversee the office’s election administration and various other duties for the next six months, until her elected successor is sworn in in January.
Lamont’s office had yet to name his pick by the end of Wednesday, while Republicans were already issuing scornful criticisms of one potential candidate.
While unprecedented efforts by former President Donald Trump to dispute the nations’ electoral results have launched office’s like the Secretary of the State into the spotlight, Merrill noted that in Connecticut, it is mostly up to local town clerks and registrars of voters to update the voter rolls, organize poll workers and publish notices about election dates and locations.
“We like to call ourselves the ‘Guardians of Democracy,’ but our role specifically is very much administrative,” Merrill said on Wednesday. “Our office just makes sure everyone is following the law.”
The Secretary of the State’s Office’s workforce of 70 employees is made up mostly of career civil servants, more than half of whom are assigned to the office’s relatively obscure Business Services division. Merrill said her executive staff is limited to a small number of appointees who “have known about this for quite a while.”
In a statement on Wednesday, Lamont referred to Merrill as a
“dear friend,” and said her “exit from public service is a tremendous loss for the people of Connecticut.”
“Denise has had a long history of serving the public good in Connecticut and has become one of the most respected secretaries of state in the country,” the governor said.
While Lamont has yet to name a successor, speculation immediately turned toward Scott Bates, Merrill’s top deputy who has experience working as a congressional staffer and chairman of the Connecticut Port Authority.
Bates’ controversial tenure at the Port Authority prompted Republican Party Chairman Ben Proto to issue a public warning Wednesday at the “very real possibility” that Bates could be tapped to oversee the office in charge of this fall’s elections.
In a statement, the Republican
leader also offered the unsolicited — and unlikely — recommendation that the Democratic governor select one of two former GOP leaders in the state legislature to serve as Merrill’s temporary successor.
“There is no shortage of individuals, on both sides of the aisle, who would serve the people and the voters well over the remaining six months,” Proto said. “Sadly, what is more likely is that Lamont will provide yet another promotion, both in pomp and payroll, for Bates, since it’s under the veil of being ‘only temporary.’”
Bates declined to comment when reached at his office Wednesday afternoon.
Merrill said Wednesday that she had not recommended any names to Lamont as a choice for her interim successor, adding that it is “his decision alone.” The three-term secretary, who has served since 2010, said she would remain available to her successor during any transition period, though she did not anticipate any major hiccups.
“If I’m asked for advice, I’m certainly happy to give it,” Merrill said. “I think I’m leaving the agency itself in very good hands, I have strong managers in all of the different divisions… particularly elections.”
The candidates running to take over the office for a full term starting in January were similarly effusive in their praise for the office’s staff, and there was little concern that Lamont’s pick would face significant challenges in continuing the office’s mission.
“I don’t think the governor would risk appointing anyone in the interim who wouldn’t be ready,” said state Rep. Stephanie Thomas, D- Norwalk, who won her party’s endorsement for the office at its statewide convention last month.
Maritza Bond, the New Haven city health director who is challenging Thomas in the Democratic primary, on Wednesday called Merrill a “pioneer in women’s politics” whom she trusted to leave in place “a process” to ensure a smooth transition for whoever takes over the office in the short term.
Even Dominic Rapini, the Republican Party’s endorsed candidate who has butted heads with elections officials in the past, said on Wednesday that he trusted Merrill’s staff and that Lamont could make a “safe pick” by choosing an internal candidate. Asked if that included Bates, Rapini said that he was aware of his party’s concerns but did not have enough information to form his own opinion.
“I don’t know him well enough one way or the other,” Rapini said. “I trust that if he’s in that office he knows how the plumbing will work.”
Merrill’s tenure saw voter roles surge amid her successful push to simplify the registration process through the Department of Motor Vehicles and same-day registration on Election Day.
“When I came into office there was almost no online ability to register to vote, now almost everything is done online,” Merrill said of her attempts to modernize the state’s election administration. “It’s been a huge undertaking, we’re just about complete.”
Merrill has also faced criticism from Republicans, who accused her of bypassing legislative authority to expand absentee voting and mail more than a million ballots to voters during 2020 due to their concerns about COVID-19. Merrill defended her actions, saying that the pandemic proved that Connecticut’s limitations on absentee and early voting are too rigid.
After nearly three decades in politics, Merrill, 73, announced last June that she would not seek a fourth term, citing a desire to turn the job over to a younger slate of candidates.
Merrill’s husband, Dr. Stephen Leach, was also diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease several years ago, the effects of which led to a “very rough winter,” in which her husband was hospitalized with an infection and then transferred to a nursing home where he contracted COVID-19.
Leach is now recovering at the couple’s home in Mansfield, Merrill said Wednesday, which contributed to her decision to leave office to care for him.
“That could happen again, he’s very fragile,” Merrill said of her decision. “I don’t think there was a moment [when her decision became apparent]. I’ve been thinking about this for a long, long time and trying to do both but I think his condition currently really requires me to be with him right now, for personal reasons and for medical reasons.”