In at least one case a voter was removed from the rolls altogether after DMV registration and other voters received puzzling letters
The Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles has been registering people to vote for several months.
Secretary of the State Denise Merrill has described the state’s “motor voter” program as a success because it’s brought in more than 15,000 registrations. But for some, the program has led to confusion.
In West Hartford, Kaitlyn Fydenkevez had her voter registration removed from the town’s voter list after she thought she had “re-registered” during a visit to the DMV to renew her license.
A voter in West Hartford for two years, she said she thought it wouldn’t be a problem if she simply renewed her voting information, “but I went online two days later to check my registration and it said that there was no record of me at all."
She was told by the election office in West Hartford that a communication from DMV is what led to the change.
"They had a record of me being a voter and they had heard from the DMV in the last week that I had been marked off which apparently means I won't be voting in the town this year."
Fydenkevez isn’t alone either.
In Meriden, election officials there said people have showed to their office with letters from DMV telling them that they refused to register to vote, even though they were already registered. The individuals had only turned down a new registration at DMV during a visit to a branch.
Kathy Casey, the Deputy Democratic Registrar in Meriden spoke with several people with the same experience.
"I had three gentlemen come in with letters from the DMV because they told them that they were already registered voters and they got letters from the DMV saying that they refused to register and they came in very upset,” she said.
"I think it's very jarring to most people because clearly these people were registered for years and they had always voted and now they were being told by a government agency that they weren't registered to vote."
DMV did not respond to our requests for comment.
Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, when asked about the motor-voter issues, said a re-registration shouldn’t’ be a problem.
"No, it's been a great system and if people are just reregistering just in case they don't remember or have moved or something like that, it would be a duplicate registration and it would just remain on the list."
Fydenkevez in West Hartford said she hopes there are no issues on Nov. 8.
"Fingers crossed," she said.
