ENFIELD, CT — A Hartford Superior Court judge has ruled against Thomas Tyler in his effort to force an Aug. 11 Democratic primary against State Rep. John Santanella in the 58th Assembly District.
The ruling does not say Tyler’s signatures were fake or that voters did anything wrong. Instead, the court found the petition process itself did not follow state election law.
According to the court decision, Tyler’s campaign used petition forms that were given out before the date allowed under Connecticut law. The judge also found the forms were missing a required statement from petition circulators listing how many signatures were collected on each petition page.
Because of those problems, the court ruled the petitions could not be counted. Without those petitions, Tyler did not have enough valid signatures to qualify for the Democratic primary ballot.
Tyler had collected 299 accepted signatures, according to the court decision. He needed 228 to qualify. But the judge found that 83 signatures came from petition forms that were circulated too early. Removing those signatures left Tyler short of the number required to make the ballot.
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