In the small town of Harwinton, residents have been calling and emailing the town’s registrars of voters and the first selectman, confused about their voting status after receiving official-looking voter registration forms in the mail along with letters saying they may not be registered to vote in the upcoming election.
Voters receive a registration document in the mail, partially filled out with some of their information and a return address for their local town clerk and voter registrar. There is also a cover letter stating, “Public records show you may not be registered to vote at this address,” in bold letters. “In order to vote in the upcoming election, we strongly encourage you to register as soon as possible.”
The only problem is those residents are, in fact, already registered to vote, and the town never mailed them anything, according to First Selectman Michael Criss, Assistant Town Clerk Laurie Boyan and Democratic Voter Registrar Candy Crawford.
Some residents have even mistaken the forms for absentee ballot applications, adding confusion to an election season already stained by past presidential claims of voter fraud, and the voting scandal in Bridgeport, which involved absentee ballots.
“We received an absentee ballot form for my adult daughter who moved away 10 years ago,” one town resident wrote in an email. “So what integrity do we have in our voting system if any?”
The letter that resident received was definitely not an absentee ballot application, which are kept strict track of by the town registrars, but the pre-filled voter registration forms are still causing headaches for town officials, who are fielding calls and emails from residents. It also shows how old some of the voting data is being used by the company.
“One of them had indicated that the name on it goes way back, it was her maiden name on it, and she had been married for years,” Boyan said. “Where the information is coming from, they don’t know.”
“It’s crazy that some of this stuff if happening,” Harwinton First Selectman Michael Criss said. “I’m not worried about it undermining Harwinton’s election system. We’re a small town and we’re pretty strict in how we do things.”
In at least one instance, the letter was accompanied by a text message purporting to be from “Ali at Civic Data,” informing the resident that “it looks like you may not be registered to vote at your current address.”
“It is concerning to receive these messages via text and mail,” the voter wrote in an email to the town. “This is particularly concerning since I have recently renewed my license and car registration. There may be others in the same situation as me.”
The letters came from Civitech, a Texas-based company that “builds the tools that make our democracy more accessible, equitable, and fair,” according to their website, and includes “tools that identify and register voters” through mail and text services.
Civitech is a Democratic get-out-the-vote organization, working with groups like Indivisible and its political action committee. Indivisible has at least two chapters in Connecticut, but links to many different activist groups in the state. Civitech has also been used by a handful of Democratic Town Committees in Connecticut in 2022 and 2023, amounting to only a few thousand dollars. Civitech claims it registered 1,389 Connecticut voters in 2022 and “turned out 634 of those voters in the 2022 elections.”
“In 2024, state parties can’t sit on the sidelines when it comes to registering and turning out new voters,” said Sarah Locke, executive director of the Connecticut Democratic Party, in a quote posted to Civitech’s website. “We must use new and innovative ways to find and help new Democratic voters overcome the structural disadvantages of voter suppression. We look forward to working with the Civitech team to discover the most efficient and effective methods for contacting voters.”
Reached for comment, Director of Communications for the Office of the Secretary of the State Tara Chozet says they have recently been made aware of the letters and have reached out to the organization to gather more information.
“While the letter does not say that the recipient is not registered, and rather says the recipient ‘may not’ be registered, it can certainly be confusing,” Chozet wrote in an email. “Our office has reached out to this organization to gather more information, and we will continue our efforts to remind all voters that they can check their registrations at MyVote.ct.gov/lookup or by contacting their local registrars office.”
The cover letter supplied by Civitech with the partially filled out voter registration form includes a QR code for the recipient to check their voter registration status, and Criss worries that such QR codes could also be used for gathering additional voter data.
“Who knows what information they’re able to pull off your phone if you scan that code,” Criss said. “I wouldn’t scan it.”
While claims of widespread voter fraud at the national level have been dismissed, the absentee ballot scandal in Bridgeport’s 2023 municipal elections cast an embarrassing pall over Connecticut after a judge ordered the election be redone, with incumbent Mayor Joe Ganim winning the do-over. Criminal charges have been filed against some of the participants in the alleged ballot harvesting scheme.
Connecticut now allows early voting for up to two weeks prior to the election, and the state’s new early voting system will get its first true test for a state and national race this November, but Connecticut residents will also be voting in referendum the November whether to allow “no excuse absentee voting,” in future elections.
But Boyan worries that with some voters already receiving misleading registration letters from outside organizations and confusing those mailings for legitimate communications from the town or for absentee ballot applications, things may get worse in the future.
“Most of it is trying to confuse people, put doubt in the system,” Boyan said, adding someone just came in that day with another letter to check her registration. “I think there’s going to be more of it, unfortunately.”
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This doesn’t surprise me from the Democratic Party! Looks like they are treading water and I hope that the voters all over the United States make the best obvious choice. And many many thanks to our stellar First Selectman Michael Criss of Harwinton , Connecticut for his diligent research in exposing this fraud. It’s unbelievable what parties will conjure to deceit the voters!!! Thank you again Selectman Criss !!!
I agree with lucy-jeans. In small towns like Harwinton, tactics like these are easily discovered and resolved. In larger cities like Hartford & New Haven they are not. Once the state abolished voting machines and went back to paper ballots, instituted early voting, and is about to expand absentee balloting, the entire election process is now ripe for corruption and fraud.
Looks like the evil demorats are out to steal the election again. I certainly registered to vote and the response upon confirming that was that I was not registered!!! What evil. How many other registered elderly voters vote be stolen by these evil demorats. In Jesus name please help us LORD Jesus!
Beware of the referendum. It is not about no excuse absentee voting, it removes the guardrails on election rules, in our state constitution, in total and gives the state legislature the power to change ANY rule they decide is the voting fad du jour. Most democratic countries throughout Europe and the world have only in person voting specifically to stem fraud. Voting is a right and a responsibility, it is a civic duty – it’s not ordering from Amazon.