New Haven Independent

After a nearly three-hour discussion Tuesday before the Representative Town Meeting Rules and Ordinances committee led by chair Alinor Sterling, it became clear that an overhaul of all five election districts in order to better equalize them could not be accomplished in the one month the Registrar of Voters gave the RTM to act. The committee agreed to meet again on June 26 at Canoe brook Senior Center at 7 p.m.

In a subsequent interview, First Selectman Unk DaRos said he agreed in principle with the registrars that the districts needed to be equalized, but not with their timing. “I don’t believe this is the election they should be doing it because we are going to have an anticipated large election coming up.”

“This probably should have been done before. I believe the confusion it can cause would be far too great and would affect too many people. It would virtually affect everyone. It is just too much. I would rather see it done at an election where we have less of a turnout, perhaps a local election where we are lucky to get 40 percent of the people.

“However, I would suggest that RTM members and the registrar and everyone else, myself included, study this coming election to see what the real problems are. The registrars voiced their concerns clearly and they are right, but this is probably not the election to do it on.”

Dan Hally, the Democratic Registrar of Voters, and Marion Burkard, his Republican counterpart, said the three key issues before them center on trying to keep Orchard House as the polling place for District 3 in Short Beach, ( they have moved somewhat away from the idea of sending voters to the Branford Hills School); possibly moving the District 4 polling place from the Canoe Brook Senior Center to the Mary Murphy School; and moving 116 families in the 5th district who are part of the 98th Assembly District to the Second District, where accommodations are better. The rest of Branford belongs to the 102nd District.

The R & O meeting drew 20 residents and elected officials, including the RTM’s top leaders.

Republican Frank Twohill, the RTM minority leader, pointed out that the state requires a redistricting every ten years, and the next one is scheduled for 2010.

Hally said: “In a year and a half the census will be taken, and it takes a while for the state to reapportion, probably implementing the changes by 2012.”

Sandra Reiners, the RTM moderator, asked the registrars to figure out which was worse, trying to move hundreds if not thousands of voters to new polling places or figuring out a way to use Orchard House. She asked the registrars to think about this.

Republican RTM member Pam Fowler, a member of the committee, agreed. She said that given the deadline perhaps the registrars could come “up with something creative” in order to stay in Orchard House.
Hally and Burkard put up maps and explained their reasoning as they had done before the RTM last week. But the tone of this meeting was decidedly different from the RTM meeting. Initially Hally sought to move the Short Beach polling place to the Branford Hills School, but by the end of this meeting Hally seemed more flexible.

“We have not given up using Orchard House,” he said. “We are sensitive to the desire of the Third District to stay there. We are committed to making it work if we can. If it can’t work, we will have to do something else, but we want to see if we can get it to work at Orchard House.”

Hally and Burkard had told the RTM at its meeting last week that the room at Orchard House used in the last election was too small and had only one door. At the RTM meeting, RTM member Doug Hanlon of Short Beach informed Hally and Burkard that a larger room was available and last weekend they visited Orchard House to see it and other rooms, ones with separate doors to more easily allow voters in and out.

Once they viewed other rooms, which they had not done before the RTM meeting, they began to reassess the situation. Burkard said the dining room might work.

What about the big room at Orchard House? Peter Jackson of Short Beach asked.

“Too big,” replied Hally.

“Too big? “Jackson asked incredulously.

“There are too many access points to it,” Hally. “And you could not keep the people who use Orchard House from coming in.”

“You could close the doors,” Jackson suggested.

The exchange between Hally and Jackson, an architect, revealed how differently residents and registrars view an Election Day polling place.

Jackson said: “I know you have a tough job. But I am here because you are messing with the social fabric of the town.”

Hally: “Gee, I didn’t think I had that power.”

Jackson: “Well, you do because we have a little district. And we have three RTM members and we have …we have a commonality. We have a place in the district which virtually everyone in the district has to go by at least once or twice a day. Nobody has to go by the Branford Hills School.

“In another way you are changing the people who are in our district and it is already been stated that the concerns of people in one district are different from concerns of people in another. And you should not be the people who are doing that.

“I am not,” Hally said.

Jackson was referring to an earlier statement made by Jon Nicholas, a Short Beach resident. Nicholas told the audience that “the issues of the newer neighborhoods are certainly likely to be very different from the issues and needs of the older established neighborhoods down by the Sound. They should get their own district so they get to elect the people who will be representing their needs. And the older established districts will get to elect people who are meeting our needs.”

“Voting places are a facilities issue. By doing some analysis and making special adjustments if you anticipate a large turnout, that’s one thing, but that should not be what drives a re-districtricting,” Nicholas concluded.

Jackson honed in on the subtext: “Yes, there is an election process, but what is really happening is something an awful lot bigger than that.

“People have a commonality of purpose because they live in neighborhoods. In places where they don’t have neighborhoods it would be the town’s job to try to instill that. Instead of five districts, maybe we should have nine districts.”

Hally: “We are not dictating any changes. Ultimately the RTM decides this. We have presented four scenarios. We are also open. We are trying to accommodate you.”

By evening’s end the registrars had backed off. Hally said that “for us, our top priority is the immediacy of the [November] election. If we can solve some of our immediate election problems I think we would be willing to say let’s take the bigger picture , get public input, get beat up on a regular basis here and figure out the best thing for the town.”

At some point, he added, “we will have to move out of this building,” referring to Canoe Brook. “We have an unworkable situation in the 4th district,” he said referring to the need for better access for the handicap and the elderly.

Joseph Bodner, III, a Republican RTM member from the Fourth District, said the simple solution was to move the polling place from Canoe brook to the Mary Murphy School.

“It is a no-brainer. It is three times the size of this room. It is a new building. It has parking. It is on the main floor; it is perfect. It is common sense.” Hally agreed.

At the end of the meeting, Sterling set up ways to get feedback from residents and additional information from the registrar of voters in the areas now under consideration.

A plan had emerged. It will be presented to the RTM next month.
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