McGrath Pays $100 For ​“Loitering”

Brian McGrath paid a fine to the State Election Enforcement Commission — but he’s not sorry.

In fact, the Democrat said he’s ready to take Vito to the polls again — the same man whose distressed response to McGrath’s vote-pulling efforts led to a state investigation.

The probe surrounded whether McGrath and fellow Democratic Party vote-puller Stan Saxe broke the law when they brought Vito, who was visibly upset and had a psychological disorder, to the polls during a municipal election on Nov. 6, 2007.

When citizen activist Jeffrey Kerekes read an account of the incident in this Independent story, he filed a complaint with the state, fearing the voter may have been taken advantage of.

The state concluded its investigation last month. The commission found no evidence that the vote-pullers coerced Vito, who has Asperger syndrome, to vote for a candidate.

“There is evidence that [Vito] felt intimidated enough by the [McGrath] to leave his apartment and go vote,” reads the commission’s decision. However, that alone is not
sufficient to establish that [Vito] was influenced by [McGrath] to vote for a particular candidate.”

​“Loitering? Are You kidding?”

The commission did, however, find both of them guilty of ​“loitering.” For that charge, McGrath paid a $100 fine; Saxe paid $250.

Click here to read McGrath’s agreement to pay the civil penalty. Click here to read Saxe’s.

Saxe appears to have received the higher fine for his role in accompanying Vito into the polling station, all the way into the voting booth.

On that Election Day, McGrath, a veteran New Haven Democratic machine vote-puller, was helping Mayor John DeStefano and Alderwoman Ina Silverman bring voters to the polling place at Edgewood School. McGrath and Saxe came across Vito at a building that houses many elderly and mentally disabled residents. When he answered the door, Vito went into hysterics, crying ​“I don’t want to vote!” but went along after McGrath commanded him to. At the polling place, Saxe hid his campaign sticker and walked into the voting booth with Vito. Saxe was caught and booted out before Vito voted.

Saxe declined to comment for this article.

McGrath brushed off the charges.

“Loitering? Loitering? Are you kidding?” he fumed. ​“I wasn’t loitering. Loitering implies I have no purpose.”

“I had a purpose,” he argued. ​“I wanted some soup.”

McGrath argued that he entered the school only to attend a PTO bake sale. While he gave voters a ride to the polls, he said he did not escort them into the building. He told the commission that he went to the bake sale three times during Election Day, once to buy beef and barley soup.

“I ate when I voted, then I got hungry and I ate twice more,” McGrath said. ​“Is that a crime?”

The state based its penalty on an interpretation of General Statutes ¬ß 9 – 236, which reads, in part:

(a) On the day of any … election … no person shall … loiter … in any corridor, passageway or other approach leading from any such outside entrance to such polling place or in any room opening upon any such corridor, passageway or approach ….

An exemption is given for election officials and people staffing a bake sale, but the exemption ​“permits only those individuals who have entered the school to vote to attend the bake sale immediately before or after voting,” states the SEEC​’s decision, written by Joan M. Andrews.

“They concluded that going to the bake sale was a crime, so they fined me,” concluded McGrath Friday.

“Does that mean I can’t go to the bake sale again, I’ll get arrested?”

While he disagreed with the commission’s interpretation of the law, McGrath said he didn’t want to waste the time and gas money fighting the charge in Hartford. He gave his own theory of why he got fined: During an interview with the SEEC, a staffer asked McGrath if he believed the voter he took to the polls was ​“retarded.”

“I told her everyone who voted for the Republicans that day is retarded,” McGrath said.

“I think that’s why she fined me,” joked McGrath. ​“But I can’t prove it.”

Nancy Nicolescu, an SEEC spokeswoman, said that the loitering penalty was ​“very consistent with prior cases” before the SEEC. Asked how rare the loitering charge is, she said ​“every election, we get a case.”

State law sets clear rules about who can be inside of a polling station, she said. ​“Voters need to have their privacy.”

“Bullies”

The SEEC dismissed the charge at the heart of Kerekes’ complaint — that McGrath appeared to have strongarmed a vulnerable man into voting for a candidate. While the SEEC didn’t find McGrath guilty of that charge, Kerekes said he was grateful for the state’s investigation.

“I am glad the SEEC looked into the matter, and dug something out of their bag of options to fine McGrath and Saxe for loitering,” Kerekes wrote in an email.

While the SEEC didn’t find McGrath guilty of any coercion, Kerekes insisted that ​“McGrath’s actions are that of a bully. New Haven Machine Politics is run by bullies and bullying people around,” he said.

Meanwhile, McGrath said he plans to continue vote-pulling for Democrats, as he has for over 20 years. He said he’d even take Vito, if he wants to go.

“That guy was a registered voter. He’s still a registered voter and I’m sure we’ll take him again on another day. If he wants a ride, he’ll get one.”