First Selectman Michael Freda will be encouraging the State Election Enforcement Commission to investigate accusations that North Haven’s Registrar of Voters’ Office inappropriately released personal information about town voter Alexandra Penfold.

“I would encourage a state investigation,” Freda said Friday. “I want to find out what happened. I will be personally meeting with the State Election Enforcement Commission. I will be inviting them to come and talk with our Registrar of Voters.”

The matter was first discussed publicly at the March 4 Board of Selectmen meeting.

During the meeting, Freda said he received a letter of complaint last month from Penfold, 28, daughter of Republican Registrar of Voters Pamela J. Parrella and former Board of Education Chairman John Lambert, regarding the town’s Registrar of Voters’ Office. The letter related Penfold’s concerns — personal information on her North Haven voter’s registration card, in this case the last four digits of her social security number, had been viewed without her consent by unknown individuals after the information was released by Democratic Registrar of Voters Patty Jackson-Marshall.

“We might have an issue and it’s my obligation to let the town know what’s going on,” Freda said.

Freda shared copies of the letter with the state’s attorney’s office, he said, as he was already working with it in its investigation of North Haven’s building department. Freda added that the state’s attorney’s office thought the letter was a serious matter, but suggested that the SEEC was better suited to investigate the situation.

Penfold discovered that a copy of her North Haven voter’s registration card had been sent to the SEEC, Lambert said, when the commission sent her a copy of a complaint filed against her and a copy of her card. The last four digits of Penfold’s social security card were visible on the SEEC’s copy of her voter’s registration card, Lambert added.

The complaint alleged that Penfold voted illegally numerous times in North Haven since 2005, as she currently resides in Brooklyn, N.Y. The complaint includes Penfold’s North Haven voter election history, which shows her submitting absentee ballots for the 2005, 2007, and 2008 general elections and the 2007 and 2009 referendums, and voting in person at the 2006 general election.

During the March 4 meeting, Freda read a letter from Penfold that said after discovering her information had been given to the SEEC, she asked Jackson-Marshall to who was her voter’s registration card given; and if it was not Jackson-Marshall who had given out the card, who did. Penfold said that her questions had not yet been answered.

Former Town Treasurer William Gambardella, seeking to clarify the situation during public comment, said Jackson-Marshall approached him in early October 2009 for advice on “three voters she suspected did not live in town.”

“She indicated that she and Pam generally discussed problems they found on the list (of those registered to vote in North Haven),” Gambardella wrote in his letter. “The trouble in this case was the proximity to the election and the fact that one of the voters was Pam's daughter.”

“For (Penfold) to claim that she lives in North Haven, when she lives in New York and comes to North Haven on the weekends, is a whole charade to get around the fact that she did in fact violate the law,” Gambardella said at the meeting. “She’s committed five separate felonies.”

The Connecticut Secretary of the State’s Office lists violating absentee ballot laws as a class D felony, punishable by “imprisonment for a term of not less than one year nor more than five years, or a fine not exceeding $5,000 or both.”

The letter of complaint to the SEEC is signed by resident Gary Amato, with Gambardella signing as a notary. In his letter, Gambardella said that he “asked Gary Amato to sign as complainant as it would be best if someone else actually filed the complaint,” because of a past disagreement between Gambardella and Lambert over the Committee to Elect Freda’s use of the North Haven High School auditorium in October.

“Having someone else sign the complaint was wrong of me, and I take full responsibility for it,” Gambardella wrote in the letter.

Gambardella said that Penfold’s information went through him.

“After the election, the information on who voted and when was requested by me as a follow up to my initial review,” Gambardella wrote in his letter. “I requested these documents in my capacity as Town Treasurer having undertaken this investigation in that capacity.  No one but myself had access to the documents, and no one else knew they were retained by me.  No one else was even involved except for allowing me to follow through and make recommendations.”

Gambardella said he spoke at the meeting to defend Jackson-Marshall. “I did not wish to make this a public issue,” Gambardella said. “But [public speakers] were attacking the Democratic Registrar of Voters for doing her job.”

“The issue is does [Penfold] live in North Haven or not?” Gambardella said on Friday. “Let’s let the SEEC decide that.”

The other two suspect voters were registered to warehouses, Gambardella added, as business owners in town can vote in referendum.

Lambert said that his daughter still belongs to a North Haven church and “frequently” visits her parents residence at 25 Trumbull Place, the location listed on her North Haven voter’s registration card. Lambert added that his daughter voted in North Haven when she was previously residing in New York to attend New York University.

“She still considers North Haven her domicile,” Lambert said. “You can have two residences, and vote from the one that is most important to you. The state is only interested in that you didn’t vote twice. If you have more than one residence, you can choose where to vote.”

Gambardella said that Penfold did not vote in New York.

Additionally, Lambert said that the SEEC’s notice of complaint was sent to the Trumbull Place residence.

Lambert said of Jackson-Marshall, “If she was just doing her job, then why didn’t she challenge the voter before the election if she thought she couldn’t vote?”

Lambert believed Gambardella was motivated by the NHHS auditorium disagreement. “This is not about voting,” Lambert said.

During the meeting, Parella said that it is possible to deduce the first five digits of a social security number using a person’s birth date and residence. Parrella, the Republican Registrar of Voters, added that if she had been asked for her daughter’s voting information she would have provided the documents but covered up the social security numbers.

“We don’t give out those numbers,” Parella said.