Interview with Richard J. Abbate, Republican Secretary of the State Candidate

Richard Abbate (R) is running for Secretary of the State. The following is a transcript of our interview (conducted via email). Italics is me, plain font is the response.

-For our readers, what is your background? Also, as President of ROVAC -Registrars of Voters Association of Connecticut, you have the huge task of pulling of a successful election. What's that like?

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to answer your questions regarding my candidacy for the Republican nomination for Secretary of the State. I have worked over the past 40 years in both the public and private sector, for small businesses and large corporations, with both profit making and not-for-profit entities. I have tended to 're-invent' myself about every 5 years. For the past 9 1/2 years I have been working in the Elections Department of the Town of Cheshire. I began as the Permanent Assistant Registrar for former Republican Registrar Kathleen Nankin. I was 'elevated' to Deputy Registrar after one year, and then took over as Registrar when Kathy stepped down in 1999. I was elected to the post of President of the Registrars of Voters Association of Connecticut (ROVAC) in 2002 and I am currently serving my second term in that capacity. As the President of ROVAC I work with Registrars from all 169 towns and cities in Connecticut to assist them in anyway possible with the performance of their duties as the Local Elections Administrators. As such I receive calls and inquiries from Registrars and their staff members regarding issues related to the statewide centralized voter registration system, how to handle unusual situations regarding voter registration, and the preparation of voting machines, polling places and poll-worker training. At the same time I am responsible for working with my Democratic counterpart here in Cheshire to produce our own local, state and federal elections. It is a challenging and rewarding experience to participate in the delivery of elections and to contribute to the legitimate formation of our government.

-Why did you decide to run?

An important part of my duties as President of ROVAC has been working with legislators in Hartford, and with the staff of the Secretary of the State's office, on various proposals for changes in election law of our state. I have spent many hours working and negotiating with members of the Government Administration & Elections Committee, which is the joint committee of the State Assembly charged with oversight of our electoral processes. I have found that I have a talent for this work, and I believe the legislators and staff have found me to be a creative thinker with a willingness to work through problems to find solutions. Furthermore I believe it is important that the person who serves as the Chief Elections Official for our State, the Secretary of the State, should have experience in 'putting on' elections, not just experience in running for office. Service as a Local Elections Administrator is a vital element in understanding the needs of Connecticut's communities. The current SOTS has no experience as an Elections Administrator, and her lack of knowledge has led to significant problems for us, especially with regard to compliance with the changes in Federal election law. I believe my experience in the elections 'business' over the past nearly ten years and my experience in the business world prior to that makes me the most qualified candidate to be Secretary of the State.

-If you had to pick two or three things, above everything else, what do you stand for?

Quick response: Honesty, impartiality, clarity! Our election systems must be honest and fair. The administration of elections must be impartial and non-partisan. The system must be clear and understandable. If these elements are compromised, the integrity of our governmental system is in serious jeopardy. Elections are the foundation upon which all governmental legitimacy is based.

-What would you do to increase voter turnout?

Increasing voter turnout has become the 'Holy Grail' after which everyone quests. For at least the past fifty years we have been trying all types of schemes and gimmicks to 'increase voter turnout' with little or no significant success. This past spring I was called as a witness for the State in the case brought before the judiciary to force 'Election Day Registration' (EDR) on Connecticut. The avowed purpose of EDR is to...'increase voter turnout' and we are told that in the few states which use this device "turnout increased by as much as 3%" as a result. Without going into a long discussion of the merits and demerits of EDR let me say that nothing is going to really increase voter turnout until the political parties and candidates give the electors a good reason to be voters. As we saw last week in Waterbury, an electorate aroused by a candidate can perform miracles. Winning as a write-in candidate Mayor Jarjura motivated the electors to turn out, go through a not at all easy process of writing in his name, and thereby won reelection. Sure we need to do more about registration of new voters and I have some ideas on that, like a voter registration bus that would operate along the lines of the DMV's driver registration bus, and travel around the state doing voter registration 'drives'!! But no amount of voter registration is going to translate into voter turnout. They are two entirely different things.

-What are your goals for fundraising and publicity?

Well I'm just beginning to work on that. I will be frank with you, my expertise is in elections administration not in elections campaigning. I'm looking for some good experienced people to help me put all that together. I'm a hard worker and I will get the job of campaigning done to the best of my ability, but I cannot do this alone. My door is open to anyone with knowledge and expertise who can tell me why, and how the work needs to be done to win this election.

-What do you think of Susan Bysiewicz? What would you have done better/differently? What mistakes do you think she made?

I try to think of Susan as little as possible, thank you! But the fact is I have to work with this woman, for at least the next several months, as President of ROVAC. Her biggest 'mistake' is her lack of knowledge about the day to day operations of an Elections Department on the local level. She has some good staff people, but she made a blatantly political move, and eliminated one of her best assets, when she let Tom Ferguson, Director of Elections, go! Tom had been a Registrar of Voters and knew the work that needed to be done to prepare for an election intimately. I have no doubt that she removed him primarily because Tom was a Republican. His replacement, Mike Kozik, is a reasonably competent attorney, but has no real interest in elections. Her next biggest mistake has been the incredibly flawed process by which we are selecting our next voting machines as required by the Help America Vote Act. Susan has botched this process from day one and has refused to listen to anything suggested by others not in her direct employment. ROVAC, TrueVoteCT, and others, now including the leadership of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM), have called on her to reopen the RFP process to include newer, recently Federally certified machines and she refuses to do so. We are headed for trouble. The current public demonstration of the finalists is little more than a "dog and pony show, smoke and mirrors!" as one of my members said on Monday at the demo in Manchester. While the public is looking at three Direct Recording Electronic voting machines, the fact is that 80% of the voters next November will be using Optical Scan machines. This is a hoodwink if I ever saw one. Finally she has made no secret of the fact that she has used her office to seek her ultimate goal of becoming Governor. Now I admire and appreciate ambition, but to state publicly, as she has done on numerous occasions, "The day I became Secretary of the State was the day I began running for Governor!" is a slap in the face to the people of Connecticut. She was not elected to run for Governor, she was elected to serve us as our Chief Elections Official and Corporate Record Keeper. You've got to do the job you were hired for, before you can qualify for the next job up the ladder. Susan has cheated us for the past eight years.

-How are you going to beat an incumbent?

The only way I know how! Hard work, hand shaking, face to face, fund raising, creative advertising, and more hard work, hand shaking and face to face. Most of all persistence and determination, coupled with passion and truth telling.

-What do you think of the new voting machines Connecticut is receiving?

As soon as I know what new voting machine we will be receiving I'll let you know! Seriously, as I indicated in my answer regarding the current 'selection process', we just don't know exactly what we are going to get. The three finalists are Danaher Systems' full face machine, Avante's touch screen, and LHS-Diebold's touch screen. All have their pluses and minuses which would take way too much time to go into in a forum like this. The important part that is missing from the 'public' part of this discussion is that we will be using Optical Scan machines primarily as the replacement for the lever machines. I feel VERY strongly that the 'public demonstration' which is going on this week should have included the OpScans. Furthermore since the Elections Assistance Commission has approved and certified an OpScan system which includes a ballot marking device for the handicapped, we should be seeing that as well. If we are going to have OpScan as our principle voting technology why not include the ballot marker which would make this a totally HAVA compliant system. Then a town could choose to go either with all Optical Scanners or all DREs or a mix of both as they see fit to suit the needs of their town. Instead of limiting choice we should be embracing choice in this arena.

-How would you make the voting system less susceptible to fraud?

Currently available voting systems are remarkably fraud resistant. What is not fraud resistant is the 'Mark-One Voting Official'! If enough people want to work together to perpetrate fraud, then only vigilance and honor on the part of other concerned voting officials can stop it. Improved training, periodic testing, and certification of voting officials is the best safe-guard we can have to protect our systems from the crooks!

-Anything else you wanted to add for our readers?

Gosh, how much more time and space can I take up? I could talk or write for hours about the world of elections administration. If you had told me ten years ago that I would be doing what I am doing today, I would have thought you were crazy. But here I am seeking the Republican Party nomination for Secretary of the State. It may sound funny, but I experience it as something of 'a calling', a vocation as it was once referred to. This is something I really love to do and want to do. I have no desire or ambition to seek any 'higher office'! The SOTS is not a stepping stone for me. If the electors of Connecticut are wise enough and kind enough to elect me, I shall serve them as their Chief Elections Official every day of my term of office. Thanks again for the opportunity to respond to your questions. I am looking forward to engaging in a lively discussion, with you and the people of Connecticut, on all of these matters over the next eleven months.

I'd like to thank him for allowing this interview to be put up on the site, and many Republicans from across the state wish him the best of luck!