here is the actual complaint:
State Elections Enforcement Commission
20 Trinity Street
suite 101
Hartford, CT 06106
I, James Bancroft, do wish to file a formal complaint against the campaign of Peter Schiff, for United States Senate, for possible voter fraud through the use of illegal voter ballot signature circulators on the date of June 3, 2010, and possible other dates.
On June 3, at the front of the store “BEST BUY” in Newington at approximately 9:30 AM, located in the Sears Mall across from West Farms Mall, I was approached by a gentleman who asked if I would sign a petition to allow Peter Schiff to be placed on the ballot for office of United States Senator in the upcoming election.
I struck up a conversation with him and he openly told me he was from Montana and was not a Connecticut state resident.
I left the store and returned to that store at approximately 10:45 AM with a camera to photograph the man and also his partners. A woman and another man were seen asking for signatures at the same time, standing in front of the “TRADER JOES” store. The woman freely identified herself as being from Montana, employed by a voter registration service, “National Ballot Association”, NBA, and was paid for her services in collecting ballot signatures.
The gentleman with her identified himself as a Republican voter registered in the state of Connecticut, as a state resident.
The woman told me that signature collectors earn $2.25 per signature while the gentleman told me he earned $100 cash per day as a witness to the process.
Both informed me that their receipt of funds was not recordable to the state for income purposes. I informed them that I was unemployed and would have to tell the unemployment office of this income if I was to do the work as they asked me to do with them, and they informed me that I should lie to the unemployment office and deny I earned any money since all transactions were in cash.
Connecticut General Statue 9-404b, section d, clearly states that each circulator must be a state resident and registered in the party they are collecting for.
Statute 9-372 defines the office of Senator as applicable to this office as being relative to the complaint.
I believe the Peter Schiff campaign willingly and knowingly violated state election laws in hiring out of state workers to perform a task that is strictly limited to in state registered party voters.
Enclosed with this letter is a DVD of 3 photographs of these individuals.
The man with the dark shirt with blue highlights personally told me he is from Montana and the woman with the other gentleman told me she is from Montana, also.
James Bancroft
Connecticut General Statute
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2009/pub/chap146.htm#Sec9-229a.htm
PART I
GENERAL
Sec. 9-372. Definitions. The following terms, as used in this chapter, chapter 157 and sections 9-51 to 9-67, inclusive, 9-169e, 9-217, 9-236 and 9-361, shall have the following meanings:
(1) “Caucus” means any meeting, at a designated hour and place, or at designated hours and places, of the enrolled members of a political party within a municipality or political subdivision thereof for the purpose of selecting party-endorsed candidates for a primary to be held by such party or for the purpose of transacting other business of such party;
(2) “Convention” means a meeting of delegates of a political party held for the purpose of designating the candidate or candidates to be endorsed by such party in a primary of such party for state or district office or for the purpose of transacting other business of such party;
(3) “District” means any geographic portion of the state which crosses the boundary or boundaries between two or more towns;
(4) “District office” means an elective office for which only the electors in a district, as defined in subdivision (3) of this section, may vote;
(5) “Major party” means (A) a political party or organization whose candidate for Governor at the last-preceding election for Governor received, under the designation of that political party or organization, at least twenty per cent of the whole number of votes cast for all candidates for Governor, or (B) a political party having, at the last-preceding election for Governor, a number of enrolled members on the active registry list equal to at least twenty per cent of the total number of enrolled members of all political parties on the active registry list in the state;
(6) “Minor party” means a political party or organization which is not a major party and whose candidate for the office in question received at the last-preceding regular election for such office, under the designation of that political party or organization, at least one per cent of the whole number of votes cast for all candidates for such office at such election;
(7) “Municipal office” means an elective office for which only the electors of a single town, city, borough, or political subdivision, as defined in subdivision (10) of this section, may vote, including the office of justice of the peace;
(8) “Party designation committee” means an organization, composed of at least twenty-five members who are electors, which has, on or after November 4, 1981, reserved a party designation with the Secretary of the State pursuant to the provisions of this chapter;
(9) “Party-endorsed candidate” means (A) in the case of a candidate for state or district office, a person endorsed by the convention of a political party as a candidate in a primary to be held by such party, and (B) in the case of a candidate for municipal office or for member of a town committee, a person endorsed by the town committee, caucus or convention, as the case may be, of a political party as a candidate in a primary to be held by such party;
(10) “Political subdivision” means any voting district or combination of voting districts constituting a part of a municipality;
(11) “Primary” means a meeting of the enrolled members of a political party and, when applicable under section 9-431, unaffiliated electors, held during consecutive hours at which such members or electors may, without assembling at the same hour, vote by secret ballot for candidates for nomination to office or for town committee members;
(12) “Registrar” means the registrar of voters in a municipality who is enrolled with the political party holding a primary and, in each municipality where there are different registrars for different voting districts, means the registrar so enrolled in the voting district in which, at the last-preceding regular election, the presiding officer for the purpose of declaring the result of the vote of the whole municipality was moderator;
(13) “Slate” means a group of candidates for nomination by a political party to the office of justice of the peace of a town, which group numbers at least a bare majority of the number of justices of the peace to be nominated by such party for such town;
(14) “State office” means any office for which all the electors of the state may vote and includes the office of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary, Treasurer, Comptroller, Attorney General and senator in Congress, but does not include the office of elector of President and Vice-President of the United States;
(15) “Votes cast for the same office at the last-preceding election” or “votes cast for all candidates for such office at the last-preceding election” means, in the case of multiple openings for the same office, the total number of electors checked as having voted at the last-preceding election at which such office appeared on the ballot label.
(June, 1955, S. 572d; November, 1955, S. N45; 1957, P.A. 518, S. 1; 1958 Rev., S. 9-68; 1963, P.A. 17, S. 1; 296; April, 1964, P.A. 2, S. 5; 1967, P.A. 557, S. 7-10; 1969, P.A. 694, S. 12; P.A. 73-657, S. 5, 6, 13; P.A. 79-363, S. 36, 38; P.A. 81-447, S. 5; Nov. Sp. Sess. P.A. 81-3, S. 4, 5; P.A. 83-213, S. 6-8; P.A. 87-509, S. 13, 24; P.A. 94-12, S. 1, 2; P.A. 97-154, S. 25, 27; P.A. 03-241, S. 17; P.A. 08-2, S. 2.)
History: 1963 acts rephrased previous provisions and added to definition of convention the purpose of transacting other business and added definitions for “major party”, “minor party” and “votes cast for the same office at the last-preceding election”; 1964 act deleted from definition of state office “representative-at-large in Congress”; 1967 act inserted language in Subsecs. (c) and (d) to clarify that districts and district offices pertain to senatorial and assembly districts and the senators and representatives thereof where the boundaries extend beyond the territory of a single town, inserted language in Subsec. (g) to include state representative in definition of municipal office where the assembly district is composed of single town or part thereof and in Subsec. (l) clarified definition of “slate” as it pertains to district delegates; 1969 act deleted in Subsec. (d) following state representative “or of a town or towns and a part or parts of another town or other towns”, in Subsec. (k) substituted “enrolled” for affiliated, in Subsec. (l) added “or senatorial district composed of part of a town”; P.A. 73-657 inserted language in Subsecs. (c) and (d) to further clarify that district and district office pertain where the boundaries extend beyond that of a single town; P.A. 79-363 added “or at designated hours and places to definition of caucus” in Subsec. (a); P.A. 81-447 redefined “major party” and “minor party”, added definition of “party designation committee” and replaced alphabetic subdivision indicators with numeric indicators; Nov. Sp. Sess. P.A. 81-3 extended applicability of definitions to Sec. 9-169e; P.A. 83-213 amended Subdivs. (3) and (4) to redefine “district” and “district office”, amended Subdiv. (7) to redefine “municipal office” and amended Subdiv. (13) to redefine “state”; P.A. 87-509 added to definition of “primary” in Subdiv. (11) a meeting of unaffiliated electors when applicable under Sec. 9-431; P.A. 94-12 redefined “major party” by deleting obsolete text and adding Subpara. (B) re parties meeting enrollment threshold, effective January 1, 1995; P.A. 97-154 amended definition of “major party” in Subdiv. (5)(B) by inserting “on the active registry list”, effective July 1, 1997; P.A. 03-241 made a technical change in Subdiv. (5), divided Subdiv. (9) into Subparas. (A) and (B), made technical changes and deleted convention delegate candidate from definition of “party-endorsed candidate” in Subdiv. (9), deleted meeting to vote for convention delegate candidates from definition of “primary” in Subdiv. (11), and substituted provision re group of candidates for nomination to office of justice of the peace for provisions re group of candidates for election as convention delegates in definition of “slate” in Subdiv. (13), effective January 1, 2004, and applicable to primaries and elections held on or after that date; P.A. 08-2 added reference to chapter 157, effective April 7, 2008.
Subdiv. (5):
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2009/pub/chap146.htm#Sec9-229a.htm
Sec. 9-404b. Primary petition forms for candidacies for nomination to state or district office. Signatures. Circulation. (a) The petition form for candidacies for nomination to state or district office shall be prescribed and provided by the Secretary of the State, and signatures shall be obtained only on such form or on duplicate petition pages produced in accordance with the provisions of section 9-404a. Such form shall include, at the top of the form and in bold print, the following:
WARNING
IT IS A CRIME TO SIGN THIS PETITION
IN THE NAME OF ANOTHER PERSON
WITHOUT LEGAL AUTHORITY TO DO SO
AND YOU MAY NOT SIGN THIS PETITION
IF YOU ARE NOT AN ELECTOR.
The form shall include a statement of instructions to persons using the form and shall indicate the date and time by which it shall be filed and the person with whom it shall be filed. The form shall provide spaces for the names and addresses of the candidates, the offices to which nomination is sought and the political party holding the primary, and shall provide lines for the signatures, street addresses, dates of birth and the printing of the names of enrolled party members supporting the person or persons on behalf of whose candidacy the petition is used.
(b) Only as many candidates may be proposed in any one primary petition for the same office as are to be nominated by such party for such office, but any one primary petition may propose as many candidates for different state offices as there are nominations to be made.
(c) The names of enrolled party members signing a primary petition may be on several pages, provided no person shall sign more than one petition page for the same candidate or candidates. Any person who signs a name other than the person’s own to a primary petition filed under the provisions of this section or who signs a name other than the person’s own as circulator of such petition shall be fined not more than one hundred dollars or imprisoned not more than one year, or both. Each such page shall indicate the candidate or candidates supported, the offices sought and the political party for which nomination is being sought. No page of such a petition shall contain the names of enrolled party members residing in different municipalities and any petition page that has been certified by the registrars of two or more municipalities shall be rejected by the Secretary. Withdrawal of petition signatures shall not be permitted.
(d) Each circulator of a primary petition page shall be an enrolled party member of a municipality in this state. Each petition page shall contain a statement signed by the registrar of the municipality in which the circulator is an enrolled party member attesting that the circulator is an enrolled party member in the municipality. Unless such a statement by the registrar of voters appears on each page so submitted, the Secretary shall reject the page. Each separate page of the petition shall contain a statement as to the authenticity of the signatures on the page and the number of such signatures, and shall be signed under the penalties of false statement by the person who circulated the page, setting forth the circulator’s address and the town in which the circulator is an enrolled party member and attesting that each person whose name appears on the page signed the petition in person in the presence of the circulator, that the circulator either knows each such signer or that the signer satisfactorily identified himself or herself to the circulator and that the spaces for candidates supported, offices sought and the political party involved were filled in prior to the obtaining of the signatures. Each separate page of the petition shall also be acknowledged before an appropriate person as provided in section 1-29. The Secretary shall reject any page of a petition filed with the Secretary which does not contain such a statement by the circulator as to the authenticity of the signatures on the page, or upon which the statement of the circulator is incomplete in any respect, or which does not contain the certification required under this section by the registrar of the town in which the circulator is an enrolled party member. Any individual proposed as a candidate in any primary petition may serve as a circulator of the pages of the petition, provided the individual’s service as circulator does not violate any provision of this section.
(P.A. 03-241, S. 2.)
History: P.A. 03-241 effective January 1, 2004, and applicable to primaries and elections held on or after that date.
“The law is an ass” (which is, I believe, a quote by someone famous).
While someone who is NOT a Connecticut resident should incur civil penalties for signing a petition meant for “Connecticut” voters, and their signature should not count as valid, against a required number of valid signatures, the residences of the workers conducting the effort should not matter (they are usually paid workers, not merely “volunteers”) - just the residence of the petition signers.
If, on principles, Schiff is a good candidate, then the use of this technicality would seem to be not bright, if it is being used for no better reason than that the claimants favored someone else on the ballot.
You do good work.
Connecticut General Statue 9-404b, section d, clearly states that each circulator must be a state resident and registered in the party they are collecting for.
I am not a lawyer, however it appears to me that (unless I have overlooked something) you have not provided enough facts in your allegation to establish that 9-404b paragraph d has been violated. It appears that the "gentleman with her" may indeed meet the legal requirement for being a "circulator". He must witness the signature on every petition page, and must take steps to verify that each signer is an elector, etc.
I do not see any prohibition against other people who do not meet the qualifications to be a "circulator" gathering registered voters to sign the petition, as long as the "circulator" is duly authorized and performs the necessary, prescribed functions attendant to obtaining the actual signature on the petition page. If, however, one of the folks coming from Montana ("going to raise me up a crop of dental floss," no doubt) were to perform the functions that are required by statute of the circulator, then that would seem to violate the law - but I'm not sure that you've made such an allegation.
So, IMHO, your allegation of illegality in this case may be unfounded.
As far as your allegations of possible tax code improprieties, that issue is not germane to the alleged violation of 9-404b, and it serves to distract from (and detract from) the issue that you are trying to push...
Looks like you got him.
Well done., Very well done.
‘If you see something, say something’ works.