{news} (HartfordCournat)Ferrucci files complaint Lieberman worker

Fri Nov 3 16:09:22 EST 2006

Complaint Filed In Absentee Ballot Matter    

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       -->               By DANIEL E. GOREN
                 Courant Staff Writer

      November 3 2006

 Ralph A. Ferrucci, the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, filed a complaint Thursday against a Hartford Democrat who violated an agreement with state election officials barring her from distributing absentee ballot applications.

The complaint comes after a disclosure by The Courant that Prenzina Holloway, 69, was working for a company paid by Sen. Joseph Lieberman's campaign to distribute absentee ballot applications and that six people claim she has been handing out the documents in violation of her agreement with the state's Elections Enforcement Commission.

"She wasn't supposed to do anything and here she is doing the same thing that she did two years ago," Ferrucci said Thursday. "With Democrats and Republicans, there has been a lot of corruption in this state. Where does it end? We have to make sure this stops."

The commission fined Holloway $10,000 in July 2005 and ordered her not to distribute absentee ballot applications or to assist voters with them for two years. It agreed to accept $2,000 because of Holloway's financial hardship. 

The penalty came after the commission found that she had forged a voter's signature in the 2004 election. It also found evidence that Holloway was in the same room with at least two other voters as they filled out absentee ballots, a violation of state election law. 

Until Ferrucci's filing, election officials had not received a formal complaint and were waiting until the commission's Nov. 15 meeting.

 But Joan Andrews, director of legal affairs and enforcement for the commission, said Thursday the complaint would start the process immediately. 

The case now will be assigned to an investigator, Andrews said, though it is unlikely any decision will be made before Tuesday's election.

Holloway admitted this week that she had worked for Urban Voters and Associates, a company paid $17,550 by the Lieberman campaign since September. She said she isn't involved in the company's absentee ballot operations.

But five people at Mary Mahoney Village, a Vine Street housing complex for the elderly, told The Courant that Holloway and another person came to their doors to give them absentee ballot applications. 

A security worker at Betty Knox Apartments, another housing complex on Woodland Street, said Holloway tried to get into the building to distribute applications there. 

In her 2005 agreement with election officials, the commission said Holloway would be referred to the chief state's attorney's office to seek the maximum criminal penalties should she violate election laws again.

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    Tim McKee cell (860) 778-1304 or (860) 643-2282
   National Committee Member of the Green Party(Connecticut)
    Cliff Thornton for Governor- Campaign Manager

  Paid for by Thornton For Governor, Max Wentworth, Treasurer-   www.VoteThornton.com

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