Patch Voter Guide: The Race for Secretary of the State

Editor's Note: This is the fifth installment of Patch's  interactive Voter Guide for the upcoming election. You can expect to see coverage here on every national, state and local race affecting Wilton. Click here for instructions on how to use this guide. Click here for more articles in the 2010 Patch Voter Guide.

The Situation   

• Jerry Farrell and Denise Merrill face off Nov. 2 in Connecticut's Secretary of the State race.

Fast Facts:

• Farrell, the Commissioner of Consumer Protection, wants to consolidate the state's record-keeping and use technology to reduce the cost of paperwork, storage, and records management for all state agencies if elected to Secretary of the State. He also plans to help create jobs and expand small businesses in Connecticut, cut spending and make the secretary's office more efficient.
• Merrill, the State Representative of the 54th District, representing Mansfield, Storrs and Chaplin since 1994, has priorities for the office that include making voting easier, providing incentives for businesses to grow and reducing the number of state agencies. She also wants to refocus and streamline the corporate registry division in the Secretary of the State office by providing a one-stop source of information for small businesses.

The Rundown

• Candidate               Jerry Farrell                    Denise Merrill
  
• Age                             42                                             61
• Residence              Wallingford                            Mansfield/Storrs
• Political Party      Republican                             Democrat
• Website                   www.farrellforct.com           www.DeniseMerrill2010.com

• Phone                       None provided                       860-256-5659
• Family                      Married to Natalie                Three children                                                                                 Two children                    One grandchild

• E-Mail         jerry@farrellforct.com       merrillforsecretaryofstate@gmail.com

• Education:
  
  • Farrell graduated with a bachelor's degree from Holy Cross College and a Juris Doctorate from Villanova University Law School.
  • Merrill graduated from the University of Connecticut in 1988 and then attended San Francisco Law School.

• Professional                     
  
  • Farrell currently serves as the Commissioner of Consumer Protection.  Before that he was an attorney in private practice for 11 years, focusing on elder law, which involves assisting senior citizens with legal problems.
  • Merrill, is a legislator for the 54th District. She's a former high school teacher and was an attorney in California. From 1985 to 1993 she was the Executive Director of the Consortium for Law and Citizenship Education. She's also worked as a director of the Training Academy for Early Childhood Education at the Child Heath and Development Institute.

The Exchange

Patch posed the following questions to each candidate. Questions are in bold, and candidate responses are beneath them. The candidates were given a 200-word upper limit.

• How would you use technology to increase access to public information and make it easier to vote? Would you implement online voting? Why or why not?
  

Merrill: One of my top priorities will be making it easier to vote. I believe that our voting system must keep pace with the mobility of the society and the technological advances in information systems.  Although we have made strides over the past 10 years in creating a statewide voter database, it could be greatly enhanced and made more accessible to the public.  We must increase the use of electronic voter registration by making it easier to register online, using fillable forms that could readily be placed into the statewide file.  Online voting might be possible in time, however, there are significant issues with privacy and security that would have to be overcome.  Paramount is the integrity of the ballot.  I would alternatively support streamlining the absentee ballot process, as other states such as Oregon have, with "no excuse" absentee balloting and possibly a system of "early voting" as in Florida, both of which have been shown to increase voter participation. Both would probably require a constitutional amendment.   I would also consider same-day registration to vote provided we have an effective statewide voter file.

Farrell: As the Commissioner of Consumer Protection, I have used technology — electronic forms, online licensing — to make state government more efficient and less costly.  I have saved the taxpayers millions of dollars, in that way, and would implement all of those plans again at the Secretary of the State's office.  Note that, while my opponent may talk of doing similar things, I am the only one who actually has experience doing so and can immediately start implementing technology, to increase access to public information, lower costs, and make interacting with government more convenient. Unfortunately, there are a variety of roadblocks that prevent voting online. Because elections must be free of the possibility of fraud, every method of voting must have a "paper trail", where, even if initially tabulated by a computer, there is still an actual paper ballot to examine if there is a question of fraud. I believe that the next Secretary should work to ensure that the current voting machines continue to function and that we find ways to 1) assist the disabled in voting (an issue where we are not in full compliance with the law) and 2) ensure that the ballots cast by our military overseas are counted.

• How do you see your role in helping to create jobs and stimulating the state's economy?
  

Farrell: As the Business Registrar for the state, the Secretary can play a crucial role in creating jobs.  Almost everyone who wants to form a business in Connecticut must go to the Secretary of the State's office to file their incorporation papers.  Currently, the office will take the paperwork, take the money, and send that new businessperson on their way.  I will create within the Secretary's office a "Business Action Center" where people who want to start new businesses can go not only to file their incorporation papers, but to get information they need to actually go into business, such as where to go for a small business loan, what occupational licenses their business may need, how they go about getting on the state vendor list.  Such a Business Action Center will help those who want to start a new business realize that goal, help employ other Connecticut residents, and get our economy moving again.  As someone who ran a small business for 11 years, I truly understand that going into business is not easy - so let's make sure that the Secretary's office "shares all the tools in the toolbox."

Merrill:  During the past year I developed and passed legislation that provided significant incentives for businesses to grow in the state.  I would continue that work as Secretary of the State. The Secretary of the State's office is where all businesses come to register with the state, and also where all information about the state is collected in the state's "Blue Book."  I would use these resources to refocus and streamline the corporate registry division by providing a one-stop source of information for small businesses.  First, we should facilitate online registration and create a more effective database of information on those doing business with the state.  This is a significant public service for accountability and consumer protection.  Secondly, I would establish a business roundtable to help coordinate programs that could be offered to new businesses needing services from the state.

• How would you work to make the Secretary of State's office more efficient?
  

Merrill: Technology is definitely the best tool for greater efficiency.  With the state budget deficit, the cost of whatever changes we institute will have to be weighed carefully against the benefit, but it is clear that eliminating paperwork would have cost savings in the long term.  Online voter registration and corporate registration also would streamline the workload of the office. I also believe that the state should consider possible efficiencies of bringing portions of the State Elections Enforcement agency under the Secretary of the State's office.  There may be other efficiencies that could be achieved by returning agency functions to this office in the interest of reducing the number of agencies that have been created. 

Farrell: I will bring a new set of eyes and sense of energy to the Secretary of the State's office.  Too often, state government has done things a certain way because "that's the way it's always been done."  At the Department of Consumer Protection, I was able to save millions of dollars for the taxpayers because I was willing to "take another look" and find ways to improve the process by which the agency operated.  If you are willing to dig into how an agency — in this case, the Secretary of the State's office — does business, you will find ways to streamline the process, make it efficient, and make it cost less.  Some very real examples of how I did that at the Department of Consumer Protection are monies spent on paper, postage and printing.  By leading the agency in a paperless direction, I was able to cut the amount of money my agency spent on those items substantially, so that I was able to run the department this year for 5% less than last year.  I am the only candidate in this race who is looking to reduce the amount of money spent within the Secretary of the State's office — and has a track record of doing exactly that.