The Government Administration and Elections Committee has passed House Bill 5001, HB 5533 and Senate Bill 463 out of committee, each with a 13-6 vote. The three bills are just a few of the bills proposed by the committee this session.
HB 5001 seeks to take away all restrictions on voting absentee. According to the Secretary of State, the only excuses to vote absentee are if the voter will be out of town, if sickness or disability (of them or their family) are preventing them from getting to their polling place, active service in the military, religious reasons or because the voter is working as an election official at a polling place other than their own.
HB 5001 would eliminate those restrictions and allow no-excuse absentee voting. It would allow 17-year-olds who will be 18 by election day to vote early or absentee, provide electronic ballot delivery for certain absentee voters and amend the retrieval requirements for absentee ballots, among other things.
The bill is a long time coming. In 2024, Connecticut voters passed an absentee ballot referendum overwhelmingly, allowing the state to amend the Constitution to allow no-excuse absentee ballots. This bill now puts that amendment into effect.
“It is vital that we pass this bill, this year, for this 2026 election,” said co-chair of the elections committee Rep. Matt Blumenthal, D-Stamford, at a news briefing on the bills on March 13. “Not only because the people of Connecticut overwhelmingly demanded it in the 2024 referendum… but also because it is a vital protection for voters across this state.”
HB 5533 and SB 436 are basically the same bill, each regarding the safety of elections and election workers. Legislators will often introduce similar bills in both chambers to help the legislation move along faster.
These bills prevent federal and state officials from using force against, searching, arresting or detaining an individual within 250 feet of an election site without a warrant. It also bans people from wearing masks or coverings obscuring their identity within 250 of an election site, unless the covering is for medical or religious purposes. No one can be forced to show identification within 250 feet of an election site, either, except if they need it to vote. The bill proposed criminal penalties for anyone who harasses an election worker or tampers with election equipment.
During the new briefing, Blumenthal criticized President Donald Trump’s efforts to interfere with state elections.
“Our election and our democracy are under attack as never before,” Blumenthal said. “The Trump administration has already engaged in actions and rhetoric that seriously threaten the integrity of our elections and the right of every voter to cast their ballot freely, fairly and without fear.”
Blumenthal vowed that his committee would not allow raids or voter intimidation in Connecticut, which is why they are proposing these bills, among others.
“The right to vote is the right on which all other rights depend. Here in Connecticut, we will protect it,” he said.
At the briefing, committee co-chair Sen. Mae Flexer, D-Mansfield, said that the bills come after almost a decade of work to make voting more accessible through early voting and universal absentee ballots.
Flexer said the federal government’s efforts to intimidate voters and interfere with elections across the country is “terrifying.”
“We know that the voters in Connecticut… want better,” Flexer said. “They want to know that when they show up to vote — whether that’s showing up to vote early, whether it’s voting by absentee ballot or showing up on election day — they want to know that both their election is secure and that their physical safety is secure.”
She reiterated that the U.S. Constitution explicitly says that states are in charge of their own elections, and that the federal government has very little say in elections.
Blumenthal also criticized the proposed SAVE Act, which is a bill that would require providing documentary proof of citizenship in order to vote through documents like a passport or a photo ID and birth certificate with matching names. Roughly half of Americans don’t have passports; 11% don’t have access to their birth certificates, and 69 million American women have gotten married, changed their last name and are now without matching IDs and birth certificates, Blumenthal said.
“[The bill] would perhaps be the most widespread disenfranchisement of American voters since the Civil Rights Movement,” he said.
The bill is meant to stop non-citizens from voting, a problem that Blumenthal said is nearly nonexistent.
“The SAVE Act is the functional equivalent of shooting yourself in the face to try to pop a pimple,” he said.
The bills are currently filed with the Legislative Commissioner’s Office, who will check them for constitutionality and consistency with other laws. Then, they will go to the Office of Fiscal Analysis to determine the bills’ cost and fiscal impact on the community before the bills get sent to the House and Senate chambers for a vote.