A West Hartford resident and business owner who was not a citizen was registered to vote in 2018 through the Department of Motor Vehicles, but according to officials has never voted in Connecticut. 

By Donald Eng and Doug Hardy, CTNewsJunkie.com

Although records indicate that he never voted, the West Hartford business owner taken into custody by ICE and then released last month appears to have been registered to vote in 2018 while obtaining a driver license, despite not being a U.S. citizen.

Seyo Cecunjanin, also known as Sead Cecunjanin, is a native of Montenegro who settled in Connecticut after fleeing political turmoil in what was then Yugoslavia, according to U.S. Rep. John Larson. He employs people at two businesses that he owns, a restaurant and a dry cleaner, in West Hartford.

This week, the West Hartford Republican Town Committee said that their Freedom of Information request to the West Hartford Registrar of Voters office turned up information indicating that Cecunjanin was registered to vote under the state’s motor voter law, which allows people applying for or renewing a state driver’s license to register to vote at the same time.

The news comes shortly after New Jersey officials disclosed that they were auditing their voter registration protocols after about 6,600 non-citizens were registered to vote through a software error. The state has since cut ties with IDEMIA, a French identification security service used by 36 states, according to reports. Connecticut DMV Commissioner Tony Guerrera said the state does not use the same process as New Jersey, and that Connecticut’s use of IDEMIA is limited to electronically attaching the license applicant’s signature to the voter registration card used by registrars.

State officials on Wednesday confirmed that Cecunjanin did not attempt to vote despite being registered, and after five years his registration status was changed to inactive as part of a routine national recanvas.

“Based on the West Hartford RTC’s FOIA response, it appears that an individual who was reportedly subject to a final order of removal was registered through the Connecticut DMV and became an active registered voter in West Hartford,” said RTC Chair Kyle W. Zelazny. “Immigration and voter registration systems are supposed to be accurate, lawful, and secure. The appropriate authorities should explain how that happened, what safeguards failed, and whether this was an isolated error or part of a broader pattern.”

Less than a week after being taken into custody, Cecunjanin was released and returned to West Hartford. In a letter to ICE, Larson, U.S. Reps Jim Himes and Rosa DeLauro, and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Cecunjanin was in the country legally with an I-130 status, which is a petition under which a citizen or legal resident requests a Green Card for family members to live and work in the United States. The form was approved in 2019, officials said.

“By all accounts Mr. Cecunjanin is doing everything that our complicated immigration system is asking of him and raising three upstanding young men on his own while running small businesses and employing members of the community,” they said in the letter.

State and DMV officials said Wednesday that they were investigating how Cecunjanin ended up being registered to vote.

An image of his registration application, which was provided to CTNewsJunkie by the West Hartford RTC, includes this statement: “If you sign this statement even though you know it is untrue, you can be convicted and imprisoned for up to five years and fined up to $5,000.”

Cecunjanin’s DMV form (see above) shows a computer-generated check in the “Yes” box next to the question about U.S. citizenship. There is also a computer-generated check in the box for “New Voter Registration.” Under party affiliation, a computer-generated check appears next to, “NO. I do not wish to enroll in a party at this time.”

It is unclear if Cecunjanin agreed to have those boxes checked after being prompted by DMV staff, or if he signed the voter application card or if his signature on the card is an electronic transfer from his license application. It is also unclear that Cecunjanin has a full mastery of the English language that would allow him to have fully understood the form. However, the signatures on the two forms appear to be identical, which suggests it could have been ported from one form to the other by the IDEMIA software.

According to the state DMV website, to obtain a driver license, non-U.S.-born individuals must provide two forms of identification. This can include a passport, Green Card, or employment authorization document, among others. They also must provide proof of residency, which could be postmarked mail, utility bill, or bank statement. Their legal residency in the U.S. also is subject to verification though the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlement Program, an online government service administered by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Department of Homeland Security.

It is unclear which documents Cecunjanin used to obtain his license and whether the 2018 paperwork was for a renewal or a new license. According to the DMV, once the voter registration application is filled out, it gets forwarded to the local registrar of voters for final approval. The West Hartford registrar’s office approved the application on Sept. 28, 2018.

State officials also verified that Cecunjanin has not been registered to vote, or ever voted, anywhere else in Connecticut.

State law allows the DMV commissioner to decide whether the box requesting voter registration can be checked by default. On Wednesday, the DMV said that the department is not currently setting its computer systems to check that box by default, but they were unable to verify whether that was the case in 2018. It’s also unclear whether that setting is local to each DMV office, or centralized.

As of Thursday, they had not been able to verify exactly where Cecunjanin filled out the form to receive his license.

In Connecticut, undocumented residents can receive a Drive-Only license, which allows driving privileges but cannot be used as a federal ID, for voting or for travel. These licenses are intended to improve public safety by ensuring that all drivers pass a driving test, understand traffic laws, and are also required to purchase auto insurance.

This article originally appeared on CTNewsJunkie.com and has been re-published with permission.

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