Independent Party chairman accuses Alves and Danbury Dems of disenfranchising voters and misleading the public

Ahead of today's hearing of the court injunction case that could result in registered Independent voters losing their line position on the ballot, in a press release yesterday, Independent Party of Danbury Town Committee chairman Veasna Roeun accused Democratic mayoral candidate Roberto Alves and Danbury Dems of misleading and disenfranchising voters.

PRESS RELEASE

To say the Independent Party is disappointed with the Superior Court’s ruling is a gross understatement considering the detrimental effect to voter rights in Danbury and precedent this sets decimating minority access in Connecticut. State statutes for minority parties afforded the Independent Party of Danbury the right to self-governance and to conduct party business as stated in our by-laws and supported by Indep. Party of CT-State Cent v. Merrill (2018). On August 11th, an attempt to hi-jack our party’s nomination night was made by a group evidently aligned with the local democratic party leadership. The legally recognized committee never received endorsement requests or letter for nomination from Mr. Alves et al. We are thankful for those democratic candidates who refused to be a part of this undemocratic maneuver and omitted their own names from the Chan slate. Integrity is lost on the leadership, not the party.

It’s evident, this dishonest and shameful political tactic is in part, due to the fact that Mr. Alves failed to secure a 2021 victory. Because of this Mr. Alves and his faction involved the City of Danbury in a crafted lawsuit that didn't just cost taxpayers money but denied 3rd party access and rights to the ballot. Despite the fact the democrat slate from their rogue group was adjudicated and vetoed properly by the only legal and rightful committee of the Independent Party of Danbury in accordance to our by-laws, an appointed judge denied our right to self-governance as prescribed by state statutes. The court heavily limited our line of arguments regarding the invalidity of the caucus on August 11th and refused to consider additional evidence supporting our constitutional right to free speech and association.

The Judge is allowing 4 of our nominations from the August 21st slate on the ballot; so he must have found that the entire slate valid. He is invalidating the other 44 proper nominations due to the invalid August 11th Chan slate. This sets a precedent that any person can submit a slate to the Town Clerk which would automatically nullify their line on the ballot—this is political thuggery with an extremely high degree of dishonesty. It’s a tragic fact that a registered independent candidate for office is now denied their own party line on the ballot. This is absurd and truly disturbing to witness the leadership of the local democratic party orchestrate the dissolution of minority voting rights and access. Mr. Alves with his co-conspirators disenfranchised voters and continues to mislead the public just as he did on the stand about his exact whereabouts during the illegal caucus. He harassed our Chairman after a proper adjournment on August 11th and we do have video to prove it. We cannot let this type of injustice and political lawfare continue and have appealed the Judge’s decision to the Connecticut Supreme Court.