‘Going to be collateral damage’

House candidate: Town clerk OK’d 400 ‘invalid’ absentee ballots

MIDDLETOWN — Linda Szynkowicz, the Republican candidate for the 33rd District state House seat, is challenging the validity of hundreds of absentee ballots.

Her complaint, which she said she had taken to the FBI, comes just five days before Election Day. While she touches upon the two registrars of voters, the main target of her complaint is the town clerk’s office, which issues absentee ballots.

In a news conference outside City Hall Thursday afternoon, Szynkowicz charged that more than 400 absentee ballots she reviewed were invalid for one or more of 17 reasons.

“This is about the integrity of the town clerk’s office. She is the only person who can issue the forms for absentee ballots,” she said.

It has been a difficult year for the city clerk’s office. Longtime and beloved town clerk Linda Bettancourt died Jan. 30. Her deputy, Ashley Flynn, served in an interim role as acting clerk until her appointment as city clerk was approved by the Common Council Sept. 6.

Flynn was not immediately available for comment Thursday evening.

Mayor Daniel Drew staunchly defended Flynn, calling her as “an extraordinarily capable employee” and one of “the highest integrity.” Drew said he was “very confident” Flynn acted in full compliance with the requirements of the state law.

Turning his attention to Szynkowicz, Drew described her as “a serial complaint filer,” noting she had made other inflammatory charges at the late stages of previous campaigns. She does so to “raise her profile,” Drew said, rebuttingwhat he said was an attempt to besmirch Flynn’s good name.

Because federal officials (a senator and five House members) are on the ballot Tuesday, Szynkowicz said she had reached out to the FBI about her concerns. Without revealing the name of the agent to whom she spoke, Szynkowicz said the agent told her to bring her concerns to the State Elections Enforcement Commission, saying the bureau works in cooperation with the SEEC.

Szynkowicz was joined by Tony Gennaro, a Middletown school resource officer who is running for the 100th House District seat as a Republican.

He praised Szynkowicz for her thoroughness and diligence in reviewing the absentee ballot request forms.

Szynkowicz, who acknowledged she would much rather have been out knocking on doors and meeting voters, said she had spent “over 100 hours” in the past week compiling the data. As a result, she said she had produced “an Excel spreadsheet on steroids. I was not expecting what I had found,” she added.

During her news conference, Szynkowicz ticked off a number of reasons that

raised her concerns about the validity — and integrity — of the absentee ballot process. Absentee ballots are intended to be used to enable people to vote early if they are on active duty with the military, will be away on vacation, or are ill or infirm, and cannot easily leave their homes to vote in person.

Reviewing 614 absentee ballot request forms, Szynkowicz said she found instances of “handwriting discrepancies/evidence of someone or multiple people assisting a voter, yet not signing as being supervised; the incorrect date of the election; some with the election day section blank; no reason for the absentee ballot request filled out; multiple reasons

checked and potentially forged signatures; no record of absentee ballots request forms being signed out.”

Describing Szynkowicz as “deeply unscrupulous,” Drew said the city will “vigorously defend” Flynn.

“Based on the evidence ... by default, the absentee ballots sent to voters never should have be sent or given to the voters and are invalid,” Szynkowicz said. She also claimed a Burgundy Hill Road resident was able to take out more than five absentee ballot request forms without having to show his ID as required.

Szynkowicz said the man later told her he had taken out more than 150 requests, and, in doing so, he was

“working.”

Szynkowicz said Flynn was notified of these actions, and was required to report them to the SEEC. However, Szynkowicz said Flynn took no action, which she said amounted to a clear case of political bias.

“I would gracefully lose if it was a legitimate race, but not if it was bamboozled,” Gennaro said. As a police officer, Gennaro said he acts in accordance with a strictly enforced code of conduct. After reviewing Szynkowicz’s charges, Gennaro said, “This is very bothersome to me.”

If nothing is done to correct the issues Szynkowicz has highlighted, “There’s going to be collateral damage from this,” Gennaro said.