Board of Education and Planning and Zoning to be decided by the Secretary of State
Marty Heiser (R) has won a seat on the Board of Finance, joining Sean Connelly (D) and Amy Macartney-Freidenrich (D).
The winners of Tuesday’s Ridgefield election are still unknown for the Board of Education and the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Marty Heiser (R) has won a seat on The Board of Finance because Amy Macartney-Freidenrich (D) won the slot to fill the two-year vacancy on the Board.
Kaitlyn Hayes (R) attained the fifth highest number of votes for the four available seats on the Board of Education. However, since Carina Borgia-Drake (D) was one of the top vote winners, but also won the race to fill the two-year vacancy on the Board of Education, Carina Borgia-Drake cannot take her seat for the full four-year term and fill the vacancy.
There is a similar situation with the Planning and Zoning Commission. Charles Robbins (D) won the race to fill a two-year vacancy, therefore pulling him out of the race for the full four-year term. Stephen Cole (R) received the sixth highest number of votes for that position.
The Democratic party is making an attempt to fill those positions with someone they appoint. HamletHub has not yet received a complete explanation of how they can execute this move, but we understand it to be a complex legal maneuver of taking a seat and then resigning that seat so your appointee can fill the seat. The legality of doing this is currently before the Connecticut Secretary of State.
The Ridgefield Registrar of Voters told HamletHub that there is a precedent for this, and then there is this potential legal maneuver, the legality of which is in question. There are three statutes that are relevant to this, including a 1961 Connecticut Statute.
It is currently in the hands of the Connecticut Secretary of State. Although there is no firm deadline, the registrar hopes they can issue a decision tomorrow.
Stay tuned.