The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Proposed bill would create $20 penalty for non-voters
What would it take to get you to vote in the next election? How about a $20 fine if you neglected the civic duty?
Mandatory voting with a potential monetary penalty is just one of about 30 electionrelated bills that have been submitted to the General Assembly this session.
Another bill, proposed by conservative lawmakers, could end the state’s Election Day registration law. Another would apportion the state’s electoral votes by counties like Iowa, although Connecticut has eight counties and only seven electoral votes. Still another Republican bill, apparently inspired by the unfounded claims of fraud in the recent presidential race, would require fur
ther authentication of voter signatures on absentee ballots.
The vast majority of these proposals will fall by the wayside as the Government Administration & Elections Committee decides first what bills will make the cut for public hearings next month, then which will be approved by the committee and head to the floors of the Democratic-dominated House and Senate.
Second-term Sen. Will Haskell, D-Westport, doesn’t expect his compulsory-voting bill to get very far, but he thinks it’s a good place to start a conversation on how to encourage voting.
“This bill isn’t going to pass, but it ought to be discussed in the United States and I want to have a positive impact on the debate on elections and voter accessibility,” said Haskell, vice chairman of the committee. “Voting laws are inconvenient in Connecticut for commuters, senior citizens and working parents.” He believes that if mandatory voting became law, political
campaigns would change drastically, fostering a wider debate among voters on what they want in their government, rather than energizing party faithful and suppressing opposition turnout.
In particular, Haskell and Democratic majority leaders support two proposed amendments to the state Constitution. An early voting bill that was approved in 2019, needs passage this year by simple majorities in the House and Senate to get on the statewide ballot in 2022.
A related bill expanding mail-in voting opportunities needs 75 percent support in the legislature to make the 2022 ballot, otherwise it would have to pass by simple majority in the current two-year General Assembly and the next legislature as well, putting it
on the 2024 ballot.
“When it comes to election law the committee is focused on what needs to happen right now, as the pandemic is still raging,” said Sen. Mae Flexer, DKillingly, co-chairwoman of the GAE Committee. “What we’ve learned over the last year is that people want to be be able to vote when they can.”
The state Constitution limits absentee, or mail-in ballots, to people in the military, are ill, or out of town on Election Day, although Gov. Ned Lamont’s executive action and the General Assembly’s vote in special session last year allowed all eligible voters to vote by absentee. The percentage turnout was 79.7 percent.
At least 68 bills were listed on the Government Administration & Elections
Committee’s website Wednesday, including one promoting the Siberian husky as the state dog.
Another piece of legislation, defeated in recent years but which will be a focus this year, is a bill that would change the way prison populations affect the drawing of state House and Senate districts. Democrats want those prison inmates to be counted as residents of their hometowns, which in the case of some General Assembly districts, could reshape the state’s political map as so-called prison gerrymandering ends, particularly in the Somers and Enfield region.
Speaker of the House Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said Wednesday that the amendments to the state Constitution are clearly the priorities of Democrats who have a 97-54 margin in the House and a 24-12 edge in the Senate.
“Early voting is obviously most ripe because we can put it on the ballot with a majority in November 2022,” Ritter said. “I’d like to think we could get the 75 percent on no-excuse absentee balloting, but I won’t hold my breath. That may
wait until 2024. Our system worked really well. The reality was there was no fraud in Connecticut. I think people enjoyed having different options. At the end
of the day, Connecticut continues to be well behind the times in diversifying voting options.”
Cheri Quickmire, executive director of the election watchdog Common Cause in Connecticut, said Wednesday that the organization hasn’t yet come up with a
position on Haskell’s compulsory voting bill, and many of the others filed with the committee. But it does support the two constitutional amendments.
“No-excuse absentee balloting the way it was permitted in the last election was an absolute success,”
Quickmire said Wednesday. “And when they received their absentee ballots, many voters (used) the ballot boxes that the secretary of the state installed throughout the state.”
“The most important issue right now is that we ensure that we provide
adequate access to the ballot for every Connecticut citizen,” Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said Wednesday. “Connecticut voters want the choice of being able to vote early in-person, in-person in a polling place on Election Day, or by absentee ballot without needing
an excuse.”
House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, called Haskell’s $20 fine legislation “a tonedeaf absurdity” at a time when people throughout the state are filled with anxiety over COVID and its effects on the economy.