The sore-loser law is fair to voters

quote[I am writing to provide some clarification regarding the Nov. 15 article, "State official pushes for 'sore loser' law."

The Lieberman-Lamont race for the U.S. Senate provoked much passion on both sides this year. There were many who called my office angry at Senator Lieberman's plans to run as a petitioning party candidate after losing the Aug. 8 Democratic primary to Ned Lamont, and there were also many delighted that Senator Lieberman's candidacy remained viable even after losing the primary.

The August primary is a recent phenomenon. Prior to 2004, Connecticut's primaries were held in September and the deadline for candidates to submit petitions to run in November was early August.

However, when the legislature switched the primary date to August, it failed to keep the petition deadline consistent with the new primary date, which led to an unusual quirk in our elections calendar, highlighted by Senator Lieberman's candidacy this year.

I have discussed proposing legislation to realign our state's election calendar to make it as it was before 2004. If a candidate wishes to run in November, regardless of the outcome of a primary "" such as Senator Lieberman did this year "" that would still be possible, provided petitions are submitted to my office one month before the August primary.

This legislation would not have kept Senator Lieberman off the November ballot after he lost the August primary. The only difference would be that, under my proposal, he would have had to let the voters know before the primary that he did not intend to accept the results of the primary in the event he lost.

This bill is consistent with my long-time advocacy of encouraging ballot access and civic participation.

In order to ensure transparency of government, voters should have as much information about a candidate as possible when they are asked to make a choice.


Susan Bysiewicz Secretary of the State
HARTFORD]

I wholeheartedly support this legislation!