{news} Weston Forum: Keith Brooks for Registrar

[David Bedell]

http://www.acorn-online.com/joomla15/index.php?option=com_content&id=9513:green-party-puts-up-candidate-for-weston-registrar-of-voters&Itemid=702

Green Party puts up candidate for Weston registrar of voters

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

"Weston provides a registrar for only the two major parties, so there's not
much chance for you to be elected."

That's what Keith Brooks was told when the Green Party asked him to run for
registrar of voters in Weston, where he has lived for 33 years. He has never
run for office before.

"If you don't mind being embarrassed by maybe getting only a few votes, we'd
like you to run," David Bedell, secretary of the Green Party in Connecticut,
told him.

Mr. Brooks accepted the offer, and his name will appear on the ballot in the
Nov. 4 election. Other candidates for registrar are Republican Eileen
Buckley and Democrat Laura Smits.

In each town in Connecticut, the two major parties - the Republicans and the
Democrats - are guaranteed a registrar of voters. For a minor party to have
a registrar, the candidate would have to receive more votes than either the
Republican or the Democratic candidate. If the minor party candidate were to
do so, Weston would have three registrars instead of only two.

"There are more independents and third-party members in Weston than there
are either Republicans or Democrats. It seems fair that there be a registrar
for those of us who, as a group, are in the majority, to assure that
everyone's vote is accurately counted. That's why I decided to run," Mr.
Brooks said.

"As a Green Party person, I can represent the unaffiliated, the Greens, the
Libertarians, the Working Families, and all others who comprise the
plurality of voters in Weston," he added.

Mr. Brooks is chairman and founder, with his wife Dr. Margaret Brooks, of
Brooks Environmental Consulting LLC, and Brooks Laboratories Inc. of
Norwalk.