Paul Bass Photo
Cynthia Jennings at WNHH FM.
Cynthia Jennings has been involved in elections with three different parties — and has concluded the state needs someone from a fourth party to oversee the vote.
Jennings is seeking to become that someone: She is running for the 2022 Independent Party nomination for secretary of the state.
She joins a crowded field of Democrats and Republicans either formally pursuing or technically “exploring” pursuing the seat, which becomes vacant next year upon the retirement of incumbent Denise Merrill.
“The two-party system suppresses the the vote” and promotes “corruption,” Jennings argued during an appearance on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
An environmental attorney by trade, Jennings is a former member of the Hartford City Council. She has worked on elections as a Republican, a Democrat, and Working Families Party member.
The secretary of the state is Connecticut’s top elections official. Besides overseeing elections, the secretary of the state is in charge of business filings and maintaining the commercial registry. The secretary of the state also proposes and lobbies for new election laws while promoting voting and participation in elections — serving as the state’s top “civics” official.
Someone who’s not a Democrat or Republican needs be in that role to ensure “full and fair elections,” Jennings argued. That would include stopping local registrars of voters from purging voting lists, a process that too often prevents homeless people or mobile low-income people from casting ballots, Jennings said.
She also argued that an independent fighter is needed to get automatic voter registration and early voting into law in Connecticut, proposals that are under consideration in Hartford.
“I want to see Connecticut pulled into line with the national agenda,” she said. “We are way behind.”
Jennings endorsed ranked-choice voting (RCV), a proposal that has divided the pack of candidates.
RCV allows voters to choose more than one candidate for an office; they rank their picks in order of preference. In the counting process, if no candidate wins 50 percent of the vote, the last-place candidate is eliminated in the first round, and their voters’ second choices get their votes for the second round of counting. That continues until a candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote.
Jennings said RCV would boost candidacies of people like her who challenge the mainstream and help prevent elections from going to “the highest bidders.”
Click on the above video to watch the full episode of WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” with secretary of the state candidate Cynthia Jennings.
Ms. Jennings is a breath of fresh air and won't be led by political strings and Barney Fife! A solid Independent, who has experience running for a state office! An individual that will run on her own merits and not use other entities to boost their enhancement to run for office!