Rossi campaign charges fraud

Mayoral contender questions signatures on absentee ballot applications

WEST HAVEN — Democratic mayoral candidate Nancy Rossi’s campaign has charged in complaints to four city and state agencies that signatures on at least two absentee ballot applications for the Nov. 7 general election appear to have been forged.

But City Clerk Deborah Collins and representatives of Mayor Ed O’Brien’s campaign — including the mayor — said they don’t believe that any signatures were forged.

The two applications, filed on behalf of Highland Street resident Sharon Alling and her son Robert “R.J.” Alling, both bore the signature of Antoinette Russo, Mayor O’Brien’s mother and a volunteer for his campaign, under a declaration that says she provided assistance.

Sharon and Robert Alling both said in sworn, notarized affidavits included with the complaints that they did not sign their applications dated Oct. 3. They also said they don’t know Russo and they believe their signatures were forged.

Collins said that to her eye, after looking at absentee ballot applications filed by each Alling for the September primary and the upcoming general election, as well as their signatures on the affidavits, all but one of the signatures appear to match.

The one that doesn’t is for Robert Alling’s application for an absentee ballot for the primary, which was provided to them by Rossi’s campaign, she said.

The Rossi campaign initially filed complaints with Police Chief John Karajanis, Milford State’s Attorney Kevin Lawlor and the Elections Division of the Secretary of the State’s Office.

It later filed one with the State Elections Enforcement Commission at the direction of the Secretary of the State’s Office, which said it did not investigate such

cases, said Rossi campaign manager Michael Last.

“I saw the signatures. Nothing was forged. I know my mother wouldn’t forge anything,” said O’Brien, who is running a writein campaign against Rossi and Republican City Councilman David Riccio after losing to Rossi in a Sept. 12 primary.

“This is just typical,” O’Brien said. “I’m certainly confident that my team has not messed with the absentee ballots.”

Russo did not return calls for comment on Thursday or Friday.

Lawlor could not immediately be reached for comment. A spokeswoman for the State Elections Enforcement Commission said she could neither confirm nor deny whether a complaint had been filed.

Police spokesman Sgt. David Tammaro said the Police Department had yet to open a case or assign officers to investigate the complaint.

“I don’t know what happened,” said Rossi. “I honestly want the police to get involved and I want the Secretary of the State’s Office to look into it,” she said.

“I would like an observer from the Secretary of the State’s office ... to just monitor everything as it’s going on,” Rossi said.

“We would like this issue investigated as soon as possible since it is very possible and probable that this is a citywide issue with the absentee ballot process,” Last wrote in the complaint letter.

In a subsequent emailed statement, Last said he had requested that the absent ballot system and process in West Haven be investigated and that a monitor be assigned to ensure “a fair, honest and transparent election.

“The absentee ballot abuse in West Haven has been a serious concern for many years,” he wrote. “To my knowledge, this is the first time people have actually come forward to file a formal complaint of fraud. This is a serious issue, and I hope it is investigated quickly and people are held accountable for their actions. “Several members of the Rossi team lost in the September primary as a result of absentee ballot votes,” he said. “These candidates actually won on the voting machines but ended up losing when the absentee ballots were counted. How do you win on the voting machine and get beat 3-1 in absentee ballots — now we know.”

According to Last, the issue came up in this case when former City Councilman Mitchell Gallignano, who is running for his old spot on Rossi’s ticket, went to the home of the Allings, who are his neighbors, to see whether they wanted absentee ballot applications for the General Election, as they had received for the primary.

The Allings told him they already had received ballots, said Last and Gallignano. But when Gallignano asked them where they obtained the ballots, they said the ballots had just arrived in the mail.

According to state elections law, voters must file signed applications before receiving absentee ballots.

Sharon Alling reiterated in an interview outside her house Friday evening that neither she nor her son asked for or signed the absentee ballot applications — although she acknowledged that they have since sent the absentee ballots back to the city and voted.

“I did not sign it,” she said of the absentee ballot application. “The only paper I signed was when Mitch came over” before the primary, she said.

When a reporter pointed out that her signatures on the two absentee ballot applications and the affidavit looked similar, she said, “They must have had it from one of my old ones.

“I’m just getting aggravated with this whole thing,” said Sharon Alling.

“I’d just like to know who did it, that’s all,” she said.

Collins said that “in order for them to receive an absentee ballot, somebody would have to apply for it.” She said that when she looked at the various signatures for the Allings, “they all look the same.”

“Could this lady be mistaken?” she asked. “I don’t know . ... I’m thinking that maybe the woman was confused.”

But she questioned, “If you got a ballot and you didn’t request it, why would you send it back?

“I kind of take it personally, like they’re slamming my office,” said Collins, who ran on O’Brien’s party-endorsed ticket and won in the primary, which means she’s running on Rossi’s ticket in the General Election.

O’Brien’s campaign manager, Brent Coscia, said, “I can say this, unequivocally, that Ed’s mom, a 75-year-old lady with (multiple sclerosis), did not forge anybody’s signatures.

“I’m not saying the lady is lying,” he said of Alling. “She may have forgotten that she applied for it.”

But he said he thought there was more going on than meets the eye and he raised the possibility that Alling simply might not want to tell Gallignano, her neighbor, that someone else had beaten him to the punch to obtain absentee ballots for them.

“I just think it was a simple misunderstanding,” he said. “I welcome the investigation — absolutely, 100 percent. Let’s see what the truth is. Let’s get to the bottom of it.”

Riccio said that “the entire AB ballot process in Connecticut has to be reviewed, from applications distribution to the way the ballots themselves are counted.” There are “too many ways of skewing the true intent of absentee voting,” he said.

“West Haven seems to be consistently under this microscope and it was only a matter of time” before “a questionable situation would arise. Until solid evidence or facts are convincingly presented to me and are verified as an actuality, I ... cannot implicate or accuse anyone of such wrongdoing.”

But “the great people of our city deserve a campaign that is invigorated with issues and plans,” he said. “Instead, we are amidst a cloud of questions.”