Allow early, no- excuse voting in Connecticut

Ours is one of only six states that has no provision for early in- person voting and curtails absentee voting to a limited list of legitimate reasons.

The nation in eff ect held a referendum on early voting this past week, as mailed- in ballots consumed public attention for days. Here in Connecticut, voters in droves took a one- time, pandemic-based option to cast absentee ballots. Their response to the option and the example of accessibility set by other states ought to tell state lawmakers what they need to do.

Given an election that all sides viewed as monumentally signifi cant, even those who had previously shrugged at voting persisted. In great numbers people registered and voted regardless of inconvenience, health risk or intimidation. Early voting was available to increase access and lessen the strain.

The result appears to be history- making: Upwards of 150 million votes cast and counted, the highest turnout ( about 67 percent) since 1900. Americans owe a debt of gratitude to state elections offi cials and the thousands of extra workers who processed more than 100 million mail- in ballots. They went about their tasks with professionalism and a commitment to ensure that every ballot received by their state’s deadline was in the pile to be counted.

Most states required less of an adjustment than Connecticut, however. Ours is one of only six states that has no provision for early in- person voting and curtails absentee voting to a limited list of legitimate reasons. This year, thanks to the initiative of Secretary of the State Denise Merrill and an act of the legislature, Connecticut tested universal eligibility for absentee balloting as a pandemic fire drill. Any voter could claim the risk of exposure to COVID- 19 as a reason to vote absentee. Every voter would be sent an application for an absentee ballot.

Citizens eagerly responded. More than 650,000 people voted absentee in Connecticut, according to Merrill, whose offi ce serves as the state election authority. That amounts to roughly one- third of the nearly 80% turnout.

Clearly, it’s time to turn the emergency pilot program into a long overdue amendment to the state Constitution. Merrill announced on the day after the election that she will again propose an amendment that allows Connecticut voters to vote by absentee ballot without an excuse. She noted in a press release that 44 states allow in- person early voting or no- excuse absentee balloting or both. Only Connecticut, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Mississippi, Kentucky and Missouri are out of step. U. S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, both Democrats who were not up for election in 2020, joined Merrill Friday in urging absentee balloting in future elections without an excuse.

We agree. The newly elected legislators should not waste the people’s time any longer; they should take up the matter in the coming session and pass it unanimously — or at least with a three- quarters majority so that under the state’s Constitution it can go to referendum in 2022. They ought not let reform be delayed by the alternate route of passage by a simple majority. That path does not send the proposed amendment to referendum until it passes a second time in a subsequent session. That would mean a four- year wait, till 2024, and even longer till it applied to an election.

The 2019 failure of the General Assembly to set an early voting amendment in motion was embarrassing for a state that likes to think of itself as favoring progress. Republicans in the Senate blocked it. Perhaps the increased number of Democrats in the legislature will make it more likely to pass — and with the needed votes to send it to referendum in two years.

After the exhausting edginess of drawn- out ballot counting in several states, the idea of adopting early voting in Connecticut may seem arguable. It is not. State elections offi cials, town clerks and their temporary workers, along with those working the in- person voting at the polls, earnestly and eff ectively expanded access to voting by giving people the absentee option. The alternative, in the pandemic surge, might have been very low turnout. That would have been a shame, and it might even have changed the course of history.