On this year’s ballot, Connecticut voters will have the option to approve or deny a proposed amendment to the Connecticut Constitution. The proposed amendment in question would allow for no-excuse absentee voting. Currently, Connecticut residents can only receive an absentee ballot if they have specific excuses, and not all excuses can guarantee an absentee ballot.
According to the website for the Connecticut Secretary of State, valid excuses for absentee voting are religious beliefs, whether someone is an active member of the United States military, leaving town, disability, sickness and if the individual is an election official who will be working at a polling location. The website itself refers to these as “strict laws regarding who can vote absentee.”
Although Connecticut is not alone in its strict voting laws, it also is not aligning with current trends. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), 28 states allow for no-excuse absentee voting. Voters in these states can simply request a ballot and have it mailed to their current location, no explanation necessary. In addition to these 28, eight states and Washington D.C. are entirely mail-in elections.
Out of the 36 total states, many are neighbors to Connecticut, including New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maine, Vermont, Pennsylvania and Maryland, as noted by the NCSL. Connecticut and New Hampshire are the only states in New England without no-excuse absentee voting.
This also isn’t Connecticut’s first attempt at no-excuse absentee voting. According to the Connecticut General Assembly, the 2014 ballot had the question “Shall the Constitution of the State be amended to remove restrictions concerning absentee ballots and to permit a person to vote without appearing at a polling place on the day of an election?” However, Connecticut citizens voted against it, leading to a second try ten years later.
“In the past 40 or 50 years, 36 states and the District of Columbia have passed absentee voting for all,” Connecticut Representative Matt Blumenthal (D-Stamford) said to CT Insider. “Now we finally have an opportunity to join them and increase access, efficiency and security for all of our voters.” Blumenthal is also the chair of the legislative Government Administration and Elections Committee.
“This is a matter of racial justice, as it ensures that everyone, including marginalized communities have equal access to voting,” said David McGuire of the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut in a press release. “We’re confident that making voters aware of this ballot referendum and explaining why and how this gives people more rights and more of a voice in their government will encourage passage. There’s an enthusiasm and a demand for voting rights nationwide that’s particularly salient in Connecticut. We wanted to capture that energy across the state today.”
Conversely, in conversation with CT Insider state Republican chairman Ben Proto argued “We adopted early voting this year, which provides 14 additional days that people can go vote. So why do we need now to have no-excuse absentee voting? The legislature is hell-bent on changing a whole lot of stuff within our election laws very quickly.”
Although the deadlines for online voter registration and for requesting a mail-in ballot have already passed, Connecticut residents can still register to vote early from now until Nov. 3, provided they do it in-person, according to Democracy Works. For those who don’t plan on voting early, it is still possible to register in-person on election day, Nov. 5.