The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Early voting essential for safe elections this year
All around the country, states are using mail-based voting to conduct elections during the COVID pandemic.
We urge the Connecticut Legislature to support safe elections when they come in for special session by supporting safe, secure absentee voting in November as well as in the August primary. It just makes sense: voting by mail has a long history as a safe and secure way to cast a ballot. Every state in the union has some type of mail-based voting. Five states now conduct all their elections by mail. Another 34 states allow any voter to request an absentee ballot — no reason required — and vote by mail in any election.
Because of COVID-19, 80 percent of Americans want alternatives to in-person voting for this fall’s elections.
Other states are providing voters with a variety of options, including expanded early voting programs. Spreading in-person voting over multiple days — or weeks — reduces the number of voters at the polls at one time, so equipment can be sanitized and social distancing preserved.
But Connecticut is one of only 10 states that don’t have early voting. Last year, we tried to get an early voting constitutional amendment on the ballot, but it was blocked by Senate Republicans. That limits the state’s options for reducing crowds at polling places on Election Day.
We applaud Gov. Ned Lamont who used his emergency authority to expand eligibility for absentee voting for the Aug. 11 elections. Under his executive order, any Connecticut voter may vote absentee by mail “if, at the time he or she applies for or casts an absentee ballot for the August 11, 2020, primary election, there is no federally approved and widely available vaccine for prevention of COVID-19.”
And we thank Secretary of the State Denise Merrill for her leadership to support safe elections by sending absentee ballot applications to every active Republican and Democrat for the primary elections in August.
Similar changes are happening in other states that usually require “excuses” to vote absentee. Gov. Lamont’s executive order is probably the most narrowly drawn of all those that have been issued to date. But it’s still being questioned by the Senate Republican leader.
So, a little more context: Connecticut’s constitution has been amended three times to allow absentee voting. In 1864, Civil War soldiers were allowed to vote absentee. And although that Constitutional provision was specifically limited to the Civil War, the Legislature later authorized absentee voting for soldiers in World War I. That 1918 act was never challenged in court.
Our Constitution was amended again, in 1932, to allow absentee voting when a voter is absent from town on Election Day or unable to go to the polls “because of sickness or physical disability.” It was amended again in 1964 to allow absentee voting for religious reasons.
But the law about the absentee voting process uses different words than our Constitution does. The statute provides absentee ballots if a voter can’t get to a polling place because of “his or her illness” — while the Constitution just uses the general term “sickness.”
Clearly, the coronavirus is a “sickness.” It is also the reason why people should not be congregating at the polls on Election Day.
Connecticut has almost 460,000 active Republican voters, almost 800,000 active Democratic voters and about 34,000 active voters affiliated with other parties. All of these voters have the fundamental right to have their voices heard in their parties’ primaries on Aug. 11.
And without early voting, there aren’t many options for making in-person voting safer. As long as COVID is still a risk, Connecticut voters need to be able to vote by mail.
It’s disheartening to hear a senator oppose Gov. Lamont’s solution, yet not offer any ideas of his own. In both Massachusetts and South Carolina, state legislatures have passed bills to expand absentee voting — avoiding the need for an executive order.
We hope when the Connecticut Legislature comes into special session they will work together to pass legislation expanding mailin voting though the November election. Including unaffiliated voters, there are more than 2 million active voters in Connecticut — and all of us deserve a safe way to vote.