A state law mandating law enforcement to maintain a minimum distance of 250 feet from polling sites was designed to keep Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from intimidating voters.
Democratic lawmakers are increasingly concerned over potential federal interference in state and local elections during the midterms.
“My sister-in-law, who is a naturalized citizen, she's afraid to go out of her house,” State Rep. Sarah Keitt, a Democrat who represents Fairfield and Trumbull, said at a Police Commission meeting in Fairfield on Aug. 12.
“She speaks primarily Spanish, but she is a legal, naturalized U.S. citizen,” Keitt said. “If you have a cop or a police officer who is not ethical, has an agenda, and who might be very ICE friendly, saying, ‘Hey, I think there's an illegal here trying to vote,’ we need to protect those citizens from being intimidated.”
Keitt spoke weeks before federal law enforcement mounted a surge of immigrant detentions across Fairfield County.
Other officials including State Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey, a Democrat, said they were concerned that ICE could potentially profile and round up U.S. citizens as they head to the polls.
NPR previously reported on Democratic lawmaker efforts at preparing for possible federal interference during the midterms.
But the law has attracted criticism and scrutiny from some residents.
Lisa Miro, a Fairfield resident who works at the town clerk's office in Shelton, said the law restricted local law enforcement.
“They're giving more rights to illegals in this country than they are our own police enforcement, this is where we all have to stop, draw the line, and everybody better get out there and vote to change everything that's going on because this is going to go from bad to worse,” said Miro, who was also at the Police Commission meeting this month.
Police officials were also concerned that officers could inadvertently violate the law while responding to 911 calls.
The law explicitly bans law enforcement from being closer than 250 feet from a polling site but does list exemptions including violent incidents, and if officers were voting while off-duty. Violating the law is a Class C felony and could incur a maximum 10 year prison sentence, a $10,000 fine and could lose an officer their right to vote.
Michael Paris, Fairfield police chief, said parts of the law were so opaque that in a hypothetical situation, like a car accident on Election Day but with no injuries, the police might have to act to protect themselves.
“We will ask the people [involved in the accident] to come to headquarters and we will take the accident [account] there, or beyond that 250-foot guidance,” Paris said. “We are focused as a police department to ensure the community is safe, but I don't want to risk our officers getting charged for a Class C felony by violating that.”
Other lawmakers, including State Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey, a Democrat, emphasized that the law does not prevent local law enforcement from doing their jobs, and there were exemptions. In a recent phone interview with Connecticut Public, she said an existing state law prohibits voter intimidation at the polls. She said the new legislation expands the zone from 75 feet to 250 feet.
McCarthy Vahey said she was open to bringing more clarity to the broader aspects of the law.
“Let's sit down and talk through,” she said, “I think there's openness to doing so.”
