Groton — The Republican registrar of voters has disqualified Gretchen Chipperini as a Republican candidate for Town Council because of a legal technicality, Town Clerk Betsy Moukawsher confirmed Monday.

Chipperini collected 183 signatures to run for council and filed the paperwork with the registrar on Aug. 12, meeting the required minimum of 5 percent of eligible Republican voters in town. 

Republican Registrar Kristen Venditti said last week she had disqualified the petition after initially accepting it. Venditti said Monday she had asked the office of the secretary of the state for legal guidance, and it advised her to disqualify the petition on legal grounds.

But Venditti said she knew the decision was ultimately hers, so she also sought the advice of the town attorney, who came back with the same finding.  

"I am very upset that this had to happen, but I had no choice because I had to follow the law," Venditti said Monday. Chipperini's petition was the first Venditti dealt with where a candidate tried to petition onto a ballot on the party line, Venditti said. The registrar said she was not aware of anything missing from the petition or she would have told Chipperini, adding that she believes everyone who wants to run should be able to.

But the instructions were also clear on the petition, and Chipperini should have read them, Venditti said.

Chipperini called the decision "vicious" and "politics at its absolute worst."

"The people of Groton should have a voice here," she said Monday. "If they think I’m going to lose, then put me on the ballot and let me lose. This hurts Groton."

The day after Chipperini's candidacy was announced, the town Republican Party issued a statement saying it would not have endorsed her.

Dean Antipas, a town councilor seeking re-election and the chairman of the Republican Town Committee, said last week that after he heard Chipperini was running he checked her paperwork to make sure all rules were followed. He said he didn't expect to find anything, but saw a mistake almost right away and asked the registrar about it. He could not be reached for comment Monday.

Chipperini said the Republican registrar failed to do her job properly and should resign over the technical error, and Antipas should step down as committee chairman for how he handled it. Chipperini said she'd called a lawyer, but an appeal probably wouldn't help before the election.

The decision to accept or reject primary petition pages rests with the local registrar of voters, with appeals made through the court, said Av Harris, spokesman for the secretary of the state.

Chipperini said voters should be outraged that someone who collects enough signatures can't stay on the ballot.

"I obviously hit the sciatic nerve of a longtime minority bunch of controlling politicians in Groton because as a candidate I would have had a chance to expose the fiscal irresponsibility and cronyism that has become so entrenched in Groton," she said. "I made them panic in fear that they could lose the monopoly they have enjoyed for so very long at our citizens' great expense."

"I have the support of 183 Republicans in Groton, who want me to be a voice, to be on the ballot. None of the candidates from either party have this kind of support at this point in time. Our voters should have choice and not be exposed to this charade promulgated by attorney Antipas, who is running himself and is the Republican party leader."

If her petition had been accepted, Chipperini's name would have appeared on the ballot along with the endorsed Republicans, because there are nine open seats for council and the Republicans endorsed only eight candidates.

"He has a party with only eight delegates, which is a short slate, and he should be welcoming a fellow Republican to run for office" whether or not he likes her, Chipperini said.

She also said the party also should not have consulted the town attorney at taxpayer expense. Part of her platform was to put the town attorney service out to bid, she said.

Antipas said Chipperini changed parties from Democrat to Republican in June, never talked to the Republican Town Committee, said she didn't need its endorsement and now wants to take issue with the party and him. He said he's not resigning.

"She wants to run for office, she's got to follow the rules like everyone else. That's all there is to it," he said.

The technical issue with Chipperini's candidacy related to the last page of the petition. Town Clerk Moukawsher said Chipperini filed her signature petition pages with Venditti at about 1 p.m. on Aug. 12, and the registrar verified them.

Then, at about 2:30 p.m., before the 4 p.m. deadline, Moukawsher said she received the last page of the paperwork, which requires a signature of the person who circulated the petitions. Chipperini signed it and the town clerk notarized it before the deadline, Moukawsher said.

But she was told to hold on to it. Because of this, the registrar was missing a single, final page with an original signature — the full petition — when Antipas walked in to check it. 

In an Aug. 28 legal opinion, attorneys Ryan W. Jaziri and Eileen C. Duggan wrote to Venditti that she had to reject the primary petition. While Chipperini on brought the signatures to the registrar of voters office at 1 p.m. on Aug. 12 and took the last page of the petition to the town clerk's office before the 4 p.m. deadline, the registrar didn't have the full document by then. The registrar told the town clerk she could send a copy of the last page via interoffice mail, the lawyers explained. Venditti didn't actually receive the last page with the original signature until Aug. 25, and it shouldn't have been detached from the other pages, the attorneys wrote.

"In such circumstances, the registrar had no choice or discretion but to have rejected Ms. Chipperini's petition," they wrote.

 d.straszheim@theday.com

@DStraszheim