With less than a month before its municipal election, there is long-simmering partisan tension in Fairfield's office of Voter Registrars.

Documents obtained by CT Insider through a Freedom of Information Act request indicate confrontations and a lack of cooperation between veteran Democratic Voter Registrar Matthew Waggner and Republican Cathy Politi, in the office that runs elections and supports the town's more-than 40,500 voters. The documents include a police report that details officers needing to respond to mediate an altercation between the registrars.

Citing an investigation by the municipal human resources department, Fairfield Town Attorney James Baldwin late last month asked Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas to intervene in what he alleged is "the crippling dysfunction and disruption in the operations" that he says is caused by Waggner’s "misconduct, willful and material neglect of duty and incompetence in the conduct of his office which immediately threatens the integrity of the upcoming November 7, 2023 elections."

FALL SALE! Get 6 Months of Access for 99.

He also claims that Waggner "violated numerous laws" in handling absentee ballots and worker access to registration records, according to hundreds of pages of documents.

In response, Waggner, who has been in office since 2009, denied the allegations, stressing that over the last year, Fairfield officials have interfered in his ability to perform his job in tactics that could be part of a "national...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiZWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmN0aW5zaWRlci5jb20v...