2 Years Later, Registrar Retracts Bogus ​“Voter Fraud” Claim

Hamden’s Registrar of Voters has retracted a two-year-old letter claiming local organizer and now Police Commission nominee Rhonda Caldwell committed voter ​“fraud” in the 2020 Democratic caucuses.

Democratic Registrar of Voters Rose Mentone issued a public memo this week ​“to clarify and retract a statement I made in an open letter … in which I recounted certain facts regarding the registration status of Rhonda Caldwell.”

In that new statement, Mentone said that Caldwell had participated in the town’s District 8 Democratic Party caucuses in January 2020, during which Democrats registered in the town’s nine districts nominate and vote for individuals to represent them on the Democratic Town Committee. At the time, Caldwell’s state registration reportedly listed her as living in District 4.

However, months earlier, In November 2019, Caldwell and her family had moved from their apartment in Spring Glen in District 4 to an apartment in District 8. Caldwell said she requested a new mailing address through the USPS, a pathway which also offered her the option to simultaneously update her voter registration.

After receiving an email confirmation from the USPS that her requests had gone through, Caldwell said she ​“never thought anything else about” her change in address. Then, on the day of the caucuses, Assistant Registrar Dwight Ware informed Caldwell that she wasn’t on his prepared list of active Democrats. 

In her original public letter at the time, Mentone wrote: ​“When he [Ware] told her she wasn’t on the list, she told him that I had given her paperwork from my office saying that she now lived in the 8th. THIS WAS FALSE.”

“No, that never happened,” Caldwell said. She said she showed Ware her lighting bill and he allowed her to move through to the caucus.

There was background to this seemingly minor dispute: Two factions of the Democratic Party were vying for power. Caldwell was part of a social justice, diversity-oriented group organizing to take control of the party away from a more conservative old guard. (The progressive faction subsequently won control of the party’s town committee in 2020 and of municipal offices in 2021.)

The issue arose again this month because Caldwell was nominated to serve on the Police Commission — and a Republican Legislative Council member cited the false 2020 claim on social media to seek to have her barred from the position.

Caldwell and her fellow slatemates lost the caucus vote in 2020. They petitioned to force a primary. A slatemate subsequently showed up at the registrar’s office to file petitions challenging those who were endorsed during the caucus. Mentone challenged the petition, pointing out that Caldwell was listed in the state system as living in District 4. Mentone then informed Caldwell of the same point. Caldwell went online and successfully confirmed her new address.

Two weeks later, Mentone wrote that because Caldwell voted and received a nomination on the evening of the caucus, she was ​“thus committing fraud.” 

Two years later, Republican Legislative Council member Marjorie Bonadies publicly cited Mentone’s letter on a social media site to suggest Caldwell should not be considered for appointment to the Police Commission, a position for which Caldwell was nominated by Mayor Lauren Garrett. 

That prompted Mentone to send out the new letter this week. The new letter stated that ​“voter fraud is a crime of intent, and it is not the role of any registrar of voters to draw conclusions about a voter’s state of mind … Any legitimate suspicion of fraudulent intent should be referred to the State Election Enforcement commission for investigation, which did not occur in this case.

“Therefore the use of the phrase ​‘thus committing fraud’ was inappropriate, and I apologize for any harm that may have been caused by that poor choice of words,” Mentone concluded.

Caldwell pointed to a series of social media arguments and competing petitions — including a ​“change.org” page made by Democrat Ann Altman calling for the Legislative Council to ​“censure Marjorie Bonadies for character assassination” and another by a conservative crew asking for signatures to ​“Ban Rhonda Caldwell from Appointments” — as the consequence of the letter.

“It’s clearly snowballed into this really ridiculous mess,” Caldwell said. The claim of ​“voter fraud” was ​“never even close to being true,” Caldwell said, because caucuses do not constitute formal elections.

“The registrar is not there to be the police of our caucus,” she asserted.

Bonadies said that she was ​“doing my due diligence in vetting these nominees” by sharing Mentone’s original letter on social media. The retraction does not change her belief that Caldwell has failed to exhibit ​“respect for laws and civility.”

“They want me to be censured,” Bonadies said of those accusing her of defamation. ​“What I want is that I don’t want Rhonda to serve on our Police Commission.” She reiterated her opinion that Caldwell, who has previously called to reallocate resources from the Police Department to other town social services, has a ​“vendetta” against the police.

Bonadies published another Facebook post on Jan. 6 asserting that Mentone had changed the description of ​“voter fraud” to ​“voter infraction,” though Mentone did not describe the 2020 incident as an ​“infraction” in her letter. 

Caldwell, meanwhile, described Bonadies’ continued reference to the alleged ​“voter fraud” while serving as a town official as part of a ​“really strong smear campaign and intimidation.”

She said that because she was banned by the Facebook page ​“Hamden Crime Watchers,” she was unable to refute allegations that appeared to be getting out of hand on the social media thread.

“Facebook has to be held responsible for this kind of talk,” Caldwell said. ​“It makes my community less safe.” 

“I now have to pay money out of my pocket to stop this,” Caldwell added, asserting that she is working with an attorney to confront ​“all sorts of people whipping up all this stuff.”

“This is how social media is getting completely out of control,” she said. ​“It now has to be a legal matter; she [Bonadies] is accusing me of a felony — and she’s a sitting Town Council member. That’s pretty serious.” 

“They’re trying to intimidate me so I will withdraw my name from consideration” for appointment to the Police Commission, Caldwell said.

“Not happening,” she stated.