Clerk responds to voting fraud in town

EAST LONGMEADOW, Mass. (WWLP) - The East Longmeadow Town Clerk responded Thursday to allegations someone in his office changed hundreds of voters' party affiliations.

Over the ten years he's been Town Clerk, Tom Florence says his office has had a clean election history, until now.

"To know that this happened in East Longmeadow, the way it did, my first reaction is anger," Florence said.

Florence talked to the 22News I-Team for the first time since allegations surfaced that someone in his office changed the party affiliation of hundreds of voters.

Secretary of State William Galvin told 22News Wednesday that his office and the Hampden County District Attorney are conducting an investigation.

"We know that the changes made to voter registrations could only have occurred at the town hall," Gavin said.  "We know where the changes occurred we know when they occurred."

Florence says he alerted the state when he discovered irregularities.

Florence says he knew something wasn't right because in a normal election year, they'd only see about 100 people request to either change their party or request absentee ballots, this year they had more than 200 people request a party change, more than 400 request absentee ballots.

It's something that came as shock to all residents.

"It affects everybody. It looks bad for the town and I'm sure we're going to be scrutinized for a number of years now," said East Longmeadow's Bob Wrinkle.

Florence wouldn't comment on who in his office might be responsible.  He did say his office is working in overdrive to correct the situation.

"I can't say it enough, to protect the voters' rights is essential of any town clerk and to have this happen in this office it's just very very disconcerting and very upsetting," Florence said.

The Secretary of State's office will be overseeing the primary elections in East Longmeadow this year and possibly the general election in November as well.