ARTFORD - The state Elections Enforcement Commission will look into possible fraud involving paper ballots used by thousands of people to vote for president.
Jeffrey Garfield, the panel's executive director, said yesterday an investigation is needed to ''ensure that Connecticut voters have the same high confidence in votes cast by presidential ballot'' as they do in votes cast by traditional voting machines.
The special ballot allowed about 35,000 unregistered voters, or voters who had recently moved from the town where they were registered, to vote only for president.
Garfield's comments came after Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz announced that the US attorney's office had turned down her request for a federal investigation.
US Attorney Stephen Robinson said state officials should come up with hard evidence of fraud before requesting a federal inquiry.
Bysiewicz said she was disappointed at Robinson's decision, but heartened at the inquiry being launched by the state panel.
''We take seriously any allegation of voter fraud,'' Bysiewicz said, noting that ballot fraud is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Despite questions about the presidential ballot, Bysiewicz certified the state's election results yesterday and awarded Connecticut's eight presidential electors to Democrat Al Gore.
Gore won the state by more than 250,000 votes, so the disputed ballots would have no effect on the winner.
Bysiewicz had asked for a federal investigation last week, after her office received numerous complaints from town clerks and other local officials about alleged abuses involving the presidential ballots.
Presidential ballots, which have been in existence for 35 years, allow unregistered voters - or registered voters who move within 30 days of an election - to cast a paper ballot for president only.
This year was the first time voters were allowed to pick up and cast presidential ballots until 8 p.m. on Election Day, under terms of a 1997 state law.
Town clerks across the state reported being swamped by people requesting presidential ballots.
Many clerks said they ran out of paper ballots and had to photocopy ballots to meet demand.
In all, an estimated 35,000 presidential ballots were cast in Connecticut, 35 times the number of votes cast that way in 1996.
Clerks also complained they had no way to check whether people were voting more than once or in a town where they don't live, since the new law did not require them to check the identifications of people requesting ballots.
Bysiewicz and several town clerks said yesterday they would seek to amend the presidential-ballot law to make it clear that identification is required.
They also will consider moving back the deadline for picking up ballots to at least a few days before the election, to cut down on confusion and prevent clerks' offices from being turned into de facto polling booths.
Mansfield Town Clerk Joan Gerdsen, president of the state town clerks association, said clerks across the state were overwhelmed on Election Day.
Her office handed out 285 presidential ballots this year, up from four in 1996, Gerdsen said. Most of the ballots were requested on Election Day.
Middletown Town Clerk Sandra Hutton reported an even more dramatic increase, from three ballots four years ago to 845 this year.
Most of those requesting presidential ballots were students at Wesleyan University, Hutton said, and she and her staff were worried that some students may have requested presidential ballots even though they had already voted by absentee ballot in their hometowns.
Town clerks throughout the state are cross-checking lists of those who voted by presidential ballot with their regular voting rolls and will report any problems to the elections enforcement panel, Hutton and other clerks said.
Clerks also are reporting the names of out-of-state residents who voted for president in Connecticut to elections officials in their home states. Any person who ''double voted'' is subject to prosecution, Garfield said.
State Senator Louis DeLuca, who called for a state investigation last week, said he was encouraged at the election panel's response.
DeLuca, the incoming Senate Republican leader, said he will seek to tighten the presidential-ballot law even further, restricting it to those who move to a new town within 30 days of an election, as originally intended.
DeLuca, who blasted Democrat Bysiewicz at a Nov. 20 news conference, denied that his criticism was politically motivated.
''We think there's a serious problem, and we think it should be looked at. I don't think that's partisan,'' he said.
