CICILLINE

Jennings

PROVIDENCE — Ward 8 Democratic leader Wilbur W. Jennings Jr. has filed complaints with state and federal authorities, contending that Mayor David N. Cicilline threw a tantrum at a polling place on Election Day and interfered with a Cambodian couple who wanted to vote.

Jennings said the Democratic mayor infringed on his constitutional rights to freedom of speech and assembly and to the couple’s right to vote with assistance. The couple, confused about the voting experience, asked him to help them vote, and then Cicilline interfered by objecting vociferously, according to Jennings.

Cicilline then arranged to have the police force Jennings to leave the vicinity of the polling place, at the Reservoir Avenue fire house, under the threat of arrest, Jennings said.

Jennings said he has asked the Rhode Island attorney general, Rhode Island Board of Elections and the U.S. attorney’s office for Rhode Island to declare that the mayor misbehaved and to take any other action that would be appropriate to preserve the integrity of the voting process.

Robert Kando, executive director of the Board of Elections, said yesterday that the complaint will be referred to the state police for evaluation and possible investigation.

Cicilline said in a statement he had been told that Jennings was abusing his role as a voter assistant by actually marking ballots rather than merely assisting, and that he objected. He said he had the police summoned “to ensure an orderly process for the voters.”

Jennings said he neither assisted any other voter nor marked any other voter’s ballot at the polling place that day.

Although both are Democrats, Cicilline and Jennings are political rivals. Jennings, who is chairman of the Ward 8 Democratic Committee, backed so-called “independent Democrat” Malkard W. Evans for election to the City Council while Cicilline backed the official Democratic council candidate, Leon F. Tejada, who won.

Jennings was an unsuccessful candidate in the Democratic primary election for the nomination that Tejada received. The ward chairman and his political allies have alleged that Cicilline put up Tejada as a candidate in a plot to win mayoral control of the council — a charge Cicilline has declined to answer.

Cicilline himself was a candidate for reelection — and ultimately was reelected — and candidates are forbidden to do any politicking within 50 feet of a polling place. But a candidate can go inside, observe and assist a voter as long as he or she refrains from politicking, Kando explained.

The incident occurred at about 7:30 p.m. Nov. 7, when Bophy K. Ban and Bory Ban, of 109 Reservoir Ave., natives of Cambodia, came to the polling place and asked Jennings, who they knew, to help them vote. The Bans have voted by mail ballot in the past and wanted help navigating the ballot and the process of voting at a polling place, according to Jennings.

The law allows voters to get that assistance at a polling place from anyone other than their employer or labor union, according to Kando. The voter, the would-be helper and the warden, who is in charge of the polling place, sign a form in order to legitimize the process. The helper is allowed to accompany the voter to a privacy booth but not to mark the ballot himself.

Warden Ed Hooks was about to get him and the Bans a form to sign, according to Jennings, when Cicilline loudly objected and claimed Jennings was preparing to vote for the couple. If Jennings persisted, Cicilline threatened to contest the election and to have him arrested, Jennings said in his complaint.

Jennings said Cicilline’s intemperate conduct intimidated Hooks and made it necessary for him, Jennings, to leave the polling place in order to avoid prolonging a loud confrontation that had brought everything to a halt in the polling place.

The Bans were able to cast ballots, Jennings said he learned later.

“Third World countries have it better than this,” Jennings said. “Anywhere else in the world a U.S. ambassador would have filed a protest at the very least. … Is this what the mayor learned as an international election observer in the Dominican Republic?”

In May, Cicilline served by invitation as an election observer in the Dominican Republic in order to monitor the integrity of the election there. He said the election was fair and, except for a few heated conversations at the polls, problem-free. About 6,000 Providence residents typically vote in Dominican presidential elections.

As for last week’s election in Providence, Cicilline said, “As many residents are aware, I am a passionate advocate for integrity in the voting process. Those who volunteer long hours to run our elections deserve our thanks, and every two years I visit most polling places to express my appreciation. I am always careful to remove any stickers and to avoid expressing anything related to political activity.”

He said he objected to Jennings and the warden and had the police summoned because people told him that Jennings was marking ballots and because there were other complaints of voter coercion in the area.

In a witness affidavit attached to Jennings’ complaint, Republican poll watcher Robert W. Cooper, of Coventry, said he did not see Jennings assist anyone with voting before or after the incident. He described Cicilline as being disruptive and disorderly, said he heard Cicilline more than once threaten to challenge the election and to have Jennings arrested, and that he saw Cicilline wagging his finger at Hooks and Jennings and shaking his head no.

Tom Connell, spokesman for the U.S. attorney, did not return a telephone call yesterday inquiring about the status of Jennings’ complaint. Michael J. Healey, spokesman for the attorney general, said he was unable to confirm that a complaint had been received.

Jennings still has a complaint pending with the U.S. attorney and the Board of Elections that challenges Tejada’s residency and his eligibility as a candidate for council. The complaint, dated Nov. 3, is unusual in that it was jointly filed with David B. Talan, chairman of the Ward 8 Republican Committee and the Republican City Committee.

Connell has declined to say whether there will be a formal investigation of the previous complaint.

Jennings said that after the police forced him to leave the vicinity of the polling place on Reservoir Avenue, another foreign-born voter called his house for help. He went to the polling place at the Leviton school annex, filled out a voter-assist form and helped that man vote without incident.