Don’t Get Too Close, Rep. Baram!

Steve Goode reports about an election-day dispute in Bloomfield involving state Rep. David Baram. A complaint alleges he got too close to the polls. State law prohibits campaigning inside a polling place or within 75 feet of the entrance:

Robert Berman, a Republican who was working as an assistant registrar at Carmen Arace Middle School on Park Avenue in District 3, filed a complaint with the elections commission alleging that Baram entered the polling place “and approached the room where voting was taking place.”

The second complaint was filed by Joseph Wactiowski, who was at Metacomet School in District 4, where he said he observed Baram standing in a room next to the room in which voting was taking place.

Berman is a former town councilman and Wactowski is a former Republican Town Committee chairman.

Baram said in a statement Thursday, “I already acknowledged that I went to several polling places. To my recollection at the last polling place an official asked me to leave, which I immediately did. I am waiting for the commission to determine if this was a technical violation and if so I will fully comply with their decision.”