Hartford District Superior Court Judge A. Susan Peck told attorney William Sweeney, counsel for Democratic candidate Brandon McGee, that he would have to return to court with a better-prepared presentation and documents or "This is going to be a very long, tedious hearing," Thursday afternoon during the second day of testimony regarding the results of the August 14 Democratic primary for the fifth assembly district nomination.
Sweeney presented document after document to Peck, requiring the judge, along with Hartford Democratic Registrar of Voters Olga Iris Vazquez — whom Sweeney called on to testify — to pour over multiple pages of primary election results and ballot counts.
Despite Vazquez's testimony, little concrete information was gleaned from the proceedings, as the bundle of documents Sweeney presented seemed to only hinder the judge's understanding of how votes were calculated and recorded on Primary Night and during recanvasses conducted in Windsor and Hartford.
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Accordingly, Peck requested Sweeney ask Windsor Assistant Town Clerk Anna Posniak appear in court Fri., Sept. 7 to explain each document supplied by the Windsor town clerk's office.
Peck also questioned a discrepancy in the number of absentee ballots counted on Primary Night and during the Hartford recanvass.
Original ballot-machine receipts show Leo Canty losing one absentee vote in Hartford's twenty-third voting precinct; however, one absentee ballot was hand counted, was not run through the machine, and would therefore not be reported on the machine receipts.
Canty, after having been tied with McGee at 774 votes a piece, found himself ahead by one vote after elections staff conducted a recount of votes cast in Windsor.
McGee's complaint alleges election's workers:
Peck called for the hearing to reconvene at 10 a.m. on Fri., Sept. 7.
