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October 14, 2024, 5:00 am
HARTFORD, CT – State officials, elected leaders, and union representatives gathered Thursday to urge voters to approve a ballot measure this November that would take the first steps toward passing a constitutional amendment to allow no-excuse absentee ballot voting for all residents.
The measure, which is a constitutional amendment, would authorize the state legislature to introduce a law for no-excuse absentee voting, thereby allowing any voter to request a mail-in ballot. Voters will choose “Yes” to support the constitutional amendment, and “No” to oppose it. If the ballot measure passes, a bill creating the new voting system would then need to pass both chambers of the legislature and be signed into law by the governor.
“A lot of people express concern that they feel like the constitution is sacrosanct and shouldn’t be amended,” said Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas. “We have amended our constitution many times related to absentee ballots alone, and that is because we are the only state where these tenants are built into our state constitution. For every other state it’s just state law so their legislature can just go in and make these changes, but it takes on an increasing level of seriousness here because we have to amend our constitution.”
Currently, state law allows residents to vote by absentee ballot only if they will be absent from their town on Election Day, are prevented from appearing at their assigned polling place on Election Day because of sickness or physical disability, are on active service in the military, are observing religious tenets that forbid secular activity on the day of the election, or are fulfilling duties as an election official at a polling place other than their own during all of the hours of voting.
Rochelle Palache, vice president of 32BJ SEIU, a union that represents service workers, framed the absentee ballot issue as a matter of fairness for working people.
“Currently our absentee voting system is only for those who can provide specific excuses like for illness or travel,” she said. “This actually excludes countless working people who face legitimate barriers to casting their ballots. The no-excuse absentee voting amendment will eliminate these restrictions, making it easier for anyone, especially those with demanding jobs or personal obligations, to participate in elections. For many of our members who have families or caregiving responsibilities, absentee voting provides a crucial option to vote for women.”
Patricia Rossi, co-president of the Connecticut League of Women Voters, explained that absentee ballot voting would be a boon to the decision-making process for voters.
“I will say the other thing that we’ve noticed is that people, if you want people to cast a ballot with full information, you really help if you let them do it from the kitchen table,” she said. “Because if you’re sitting at the kitchen table and you don’t know who this probate judge candidate is, you can look it up and see who that person is. You’re not standing in the ballot booth and realizing, gee, I don’t know who this person is. And I have heard those conversations in the polling place where someone yells, ‘who is this guy?'”
Following last week’s meeting, Sen. Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, sent the following statement:
“Voters across the state should approach this ballot question with a healthy dose of skepticism. Connecticut repeatedly made national news this year for the Bridgeport ballot stuffing videos. Blatant, brazen ballot box stuffing in Bridgeport was all caught on tape. A Superior Court Judge said the videos were ‘shocking.’ The Majority at the state Capitol also saw those videos. They still repeatedly voted ‘no’ on Republican proposals to reform the election integrity system. If the question passes, a ton of unanswered questions remain. Among them is: Who disseminates the absentee ballots? The bottom line: Under the Majority, no achievable, common sense election reforms were enacted to deter future Bridgeport fiascos. Now we’re expanding this very program that was used as a vehicle for fraud, without any measures being put in place to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
Currently, 27 states allow for no-excuse absentee voting, with an additional eight states allowing for elections to be conducted entirely by mail. Connecticut would join Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maine as New England states which allow no-excuse absentee voting.
