Open mail-in voting for election to all

Too much is at stake in the upcoming national and state elections — or any election — to make it difficult for people to vote.

And too much is at risk next month, and likely in November, to stymie alternatives to inperson voting. With a vaccine against the coronavirus unlikely to be widely available by early November, voters should not have to choose between their health and civic duty.

Safe voting should not be a political issue, but unfortunately that’s what it has become.

We have fully supported Secretary of the State Denise Merrill in her pursuit to engage as much of the electorate as possible in choosing who will represent them in office. Merrill is sending absentee ballot applications to registered Republicans and Democrats for the Aug. 11 primaries in Connecticut. These are applications for an absentee ballot, not the ballot itself.

If not for the pandemic and Gov. Ned Lamont’s executive order, this much could not have happened. Connecticut has some of the most restrictive statutory wording on absentee ballot use, limiting it to such circumstances as military service, nursing home residency or illness. The order enables threat of illness as a reason for mail-in voting for the primary; the General Assembly in a special session Thursday will consider extending the allowance to the November election.

Some are trying to stop the mail-in voting effort. The lawyer for four GOP primary challengers in the first and second Congressional districts called

Lamont’s executive order illegal government overreach and sought to stop the application mailings, but state Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Robinson rejected it Monday saying the complaint should have been filed in a lower court. That’s a technicality, though it won’t stop the mailing of more than 1 million applications which are underway.

Rebuffed, Attorney Proloy K. Das promptly filed suit in state Superior Court where Republican lawmakers state Sen. Eric Berthel of Watertown and state Rep. Jason Perillo of Shelton also have challenges awaiting, charging Merrill’s actions as “unlawful and unconstitutional.”

We strongly disagree. State statute may limit the use of absentee ballots, but the unusual circumstance of the pandemic that has killed more than 4,500 people in our state calls for remedies in this election. Aside from voters fearful of close contact with inperson voting, the many volunteers who staff the polls might be unwilling to risk their health — a reasonable caution.

Letting voters mail in their ballots during the pandemic makes sense.

The stated concern of national Republicans who object is that mail-in voting could lead to widespread fraud. But the nonpartisan, and respected, Brookings Institute states, “There is no evidence that mail ballots increase electoral fraud.” Many states allow it.

National Democrats charge that Republicans are trying to suppress the Democratic vote by limiting access during the pandemic.

Whatever the viewpoint, the only aspect of voting that should be political is filling in the ballot, not the process.

Safe voting should not be a political issue, but unfortunately that’s what it has become.