State Rep Challenger Pitches Ballot Reforms

Lesley Heffel McGuirk’s ideal election ballot would be accessible to residents without any need for registration. It would let voters rank their favorite candidates in order and launch automatic runoff races. And it could be submitted early, so that voters could more easily plan around hectic work schedules and childcare needs.

Heffel McGuirk is spreading this vision for voting reform as she awaits, for the first time, a ballot featuring her own name.

Heffel McGuirk has qualified to have her name on the Nov. 8 general election ballot as an unaffiliated candidate running against incumbent Democratic State Rep. Patricia Dillon, who has represented the 92nd district for 38 years. (No Republican is on the ballot.)

Heffel McGuirk has never been the kind of person to stand up on a chair and give speeches, she said in an interview about her candidacy. She has always been the person working behind the scenes, calling up friends to make sure they’re registered to vote, crunching numbers for the Connecticut League of Women Voters.

While she doesn’t see herself as having a ​“politician’s personality,” she said, she felt motivated to run for office when the Supreme Court struck down abortion rights encoded in Roe V. Wade in June. The decision cemented a sense that, of the rights she has grown accustomed to, ​“anything that’s not nailed down is up for grabs.”

Heffel McGuirk works as a data analyst for the Yale Alumni Association, interpreting records to help the organization expand its engagement with Yale graduates — experience that would help her bring a ​“data mindset” to the state legislature, she said. She has also volunteered for six years for the League of Women Voters, where she has focused on modernizing the organization’s computer systems and internet presence.

McGuirk moved to New Haven in fourth grade. While she moved out for college and worked for a time in New York City, she returned to New Haven eight years ago, and has lived within the 92nd District for the past seven, she said. Heffel McGuirk now lives with her husband and two dogs in a purple house in Edgewood, where she has found a close-knit community of neighbors, she said. (The 92nd District also includes the West River, Westville, and Amity neighborhoods.)

Heffel McGuirk called for higher income taxes for the state’s millionaires and billionaires. She said she believes in ending the state’s cash bail system, through which people accused of a crime can be imprisoned before trial if they cannot afford bond. She called for school libraries to be open full time, and for more health care, food security, and other social services to be offered at schools for kids and adults alike.

Heffel McGuirk said she’s following the Citizens’ Election Program’s guidelines that candidates accept only individual donations of up to $290, though she doesn’t expect to receive enough donations to qualify for public financing.

Expanding voter access is a key priority, Heffel McGuirk she said. ​“I am in favor of removing any possible barriers” to voting, she said.

Heffel McGuirk said that according to lists from the city registrar of voters office, just 38 18-year-olds born in 2004 are registered to vote in her district, which includes 14,000 registered voters out of about 24,000 residents. She advocated automatically registering Connecticut residents to vote, or at least allowing 16-year-olds to ​“pre-register” to vote so they can cast ballots as soon as they turn 18.

She’s also a supporter of Ranked-Choice Voting, a system that allows voters to list a hierarchy of candidate preferences and eliminates the least popular candidates in a series of runoffs. Ranked Choice would ​“open the doors for who can participate in democracy,” she said, since voters would no longer feel pressured to focus on choosing between the top two candidates most likely to win.

And she’s a strong proponent of early voting, which would mean that ​“if you have to work late, your kid’s sick, your car breaks down … you can still go vote” over the course of a longer window. 

Above all else, Heffel-McGuirk said, she hopes the voters she speaks to during the campaign process will remember an amendment that will appear on November 8 ballots: the Connecticut Allow for Early Voting Amendment, which would enable the state legislature to enact early voting policies.

Heffel McGuirk’s opponent, incumbent Dillon, said that ​“on the voter access issues, it sounds like there’s no policy difference at all.” She added, ​“there are a couple of things we’ve tried to do that were blocked for partisan reasons.” 

“I am excited about what we’re working on in the district, a lot of which is nuts-and-bolts things,” added Dillon. ​“I spent last week walking around in raw sewage” after Westville streets flooded in a rainstorm. Read more about Dillon’s accomplishments and campaign priorities, and hear her give an interview on WNHH’s Dateline New Haven, here.

As a 38-year-old, Heffel McGuirk said, she brings a perspective uniquely shaped by her generational experience. The 9/11 attacks occurred during Heffel McGuirk’s first week of college. The Iraq war, 2008 recession, Trump presidency, and Covid-19 pandemic followed. ​“In the time that I’ve been an adult, things have been pretty tumultuous,” she said. 

Her goal as a hopeful state representative would be to ​“make sure we’re at least providing an OK life for people. A life that isn’t terrifying,” she said. 

Uncontrollable life events, such as medical emergencies, shouldn’t cost people financial stability, she argued. ​“If you break your ankle, it shouldn’t ruin your life … We’re a small state that is relatively wealthy and I think we can do really well for our people.”