About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

2006 Connecticut Attorney General Reports and Opinions 1 (2006)

handle is hein.sag/sagct0025 and id is 1 raw text is: CT Attorney General Attorney General's Opinion Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal January 13, 2006 The Honorable Susan B. Bysiewicz Secretary of the State 30 Trinity St., PO Box 150470 Hartford, CT 06115-0470 Dear Secretary Bysiewicz: Thank you for your letter of December 23, 2005, seeking my opinion concerning issues relating to your on- going efforts to procure voting machines that comply with the requirements of the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA). Upon discussion with your office, your specific inquiry has been clarified and narrowed to the following question: Does Connecticut state law require that electronic voting machines utilize a full face ballot? Neither the Connecticut General Statutes nor any regulation explicitly uses the term full face ballot or specifies its use for any kind of voting machine. Nor has this office or the Secretary of the State (Secretary) 1 ever issued a formal opinion requiring that voting machines utilize a full face ballot. The Office of the Secretary has long required full face ballots for lever voting machines, and has on occasion informally advised the public of this view. In light of Connecticut's longstanding voting practices and use of lever voting 2 machines, this interpretation was reasonable and sensible. We find nothing in current law, regulation or practice that requires the full face ballot interpretation to be applied to electronic voting machines, which are substantially different in format and function. Significantly, the recent passage of Public 05-188, spelling out detailed requirements for electronic voting machines, does not include a requirement for full face ballots. This omission leads directly to the conclusion that the legislature did not require full face ballots in such machines. The legislature may always add this requirement if it deems it appropriate. By way of background, a full face ballot simultaneously displays to the voter, on a single page or screen, all the candidates for all offices. Such a ballot is distinguished from a vote by office ballot, which presents the candidates for each office on a separate page or screen. For example, a vote by office ballot would present all the candidates for Governor on one page or screen, followed by all the candidates for Lieutenant Governor on the next page or screen, and so on. We understand that your office based its informal advice requiring full face ballots for lever voting machines on its interpretation of Section 9-250 of the General Statutes, as well as on Connecticut's historical election practices.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most