Yesterday, the Government Administration and Elections Committee held hearings on several bills covering political ad disclosure, ending cross-endorsements, Legislative conflicts of interest, and early voting. I testified in favor of more disclosure and urged that early voting be sent back to the drawing board <Prepared Remarks> <Disclosure> <Early Voting>
Earlier in the session I complained about bills being too sketchy to testify for or against, including early voting. This time we had a longer early voting bill full of holes and, as I said in my testimony ,it “couples omissions with ambiguity”. George Cody, Registrar, New Canaan and I each found several glitches the other one of us missed.
Please defer action on early voting for a time when Connecticut is prepared to pay for it. And when there is time to develop and hear testimony on a detailed bill with guarantees of protection and voter service.
Almost all the legislators from both parties made “political hay” (that is intended as a cliche like “fox in the henhouse”) out of former and future candidate for Governor, Tom Foley’s testimony on legislative ethics. He admitted authorship of questionable concepts not worded to match his intent. I can only wonder what would happen if all bills were required to identify the author? Would I have tempered my remarks on early voting, had everyone known the source of that inadequate and contradictory text? Would the result be less bills with better text?
