Ensuring equal access for all voters in Connecticut
The COVID-19 pandemic and the barbaric death of George Floyd have highlighted yet again the stain of racism that rends our social fabric and the gross disparities between those who have access to quality education, employment and health care and those whose exclusion from those necessities is based on race or ethnicity.
Protests in cities in Connecticut and elsewhere have painfully demonstrated the breadth and depth of those disparate conditions and experiences and the limited progress we have made to address them. Where those protests have turned violent, they also threaten the public safety officers, local businesses and others serving our communities and materially exacerbate both the disparities and the divisive nature of our political discourse.
Making genuine and sustained progress in addressing these disparities requires the engagement of all voters in determining who will represent their needs and ideas at all levels of government. That in turn depends on the ability of those voters to cast their ballots easily, safely and securely, regardless of pandemics or other emergencies that threaten access to polling places.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the disparities that it highlights are compelling reasons for making voting by mail a permanent option in Connecticut for all future federal and state elections, starting with the Nov. 3 presidential election.
The recent efforts by Secretary of the State Denise Merrill and the executive order by Gov. Ned Lamont to permit expanded voting by mail in Connecticut’s August primaries are helpful temporary actions, but to preserve the sacred right to vote, we must permanently authorize the vote-by-mail option and not to plan for such a fundamental part of our democratic process on an episode-by-episode basis.
The SAM CT Task Force, a nonpartisan effort to enhance candidate competition and voter participation, has accordingly urged Gov. Lamont to establish a voter participation commission composed of lawmakers, community leaders, leaders of the state’s Republican and Democratic parties and private sector entities that develop and produce election equipment and software.
The commission would be charged to conduct a comprehensive review of the infrastructure and security concerns and provide the governor and the legislature by Sept. 1 the steps needed to implement a safe and secure vote-bymail option.
We must ensure that all eligible Connecticut citizens can cast their votes easily, safely and securely — now and in the future — regardless of pandemics or other challenges. Five states already provide vote-bymail as their default voting model, while retaining in-person options for those who need it.
The research required to implement vote-by-mail has already been accomplished, as outlined in a report by the National Vote at Home Institute authorized by former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in his 2018 executive order No. 64, which directed “an analysis of the potential methods and requirements to implement voting by mail for all local, state and federal elections.”
The report addressed the abuse and security objections to the vote-by-mail option and specifically addressed the “administrative, technological, legal, security and fiscal requirements to implement voting by mail and return of mailed ballots.”
The study includes options for convenient, reliable and secure procedures and materials for voting by mail and identifies where the various modes of voteby-mail are being used and what those states have experienced. In short, the report addresses the issues affecting the all-important confidence of voters in the security of their ballots and the accuracy of the election results.
The COVID-19 pandemic reinforces the undeniable reality that safe and secure voting by mail should be an option for all future state and federal elections in Connecticut. Plain and simple, no voter should ever have to choose between casting their vote and protecting their health or safety.
Voting by mail is a simple, common-sense solution made-to-order not only for pandemics and other emergencies but for the safe and simple ease of casting a ballot in good times. Yet Connecticut, often a national leader in election and government reform issues, is currently a one-star state in the Institute’s five-star ranking system of the 50 states. The reasons for that ranking include the onerous requirement of an excuse for a voter to obtain an absentee/mail ballot for the 2020 general election.
The Institute’s report in response to the 2018 executive order comprehensively addresses the serious concerns of fraud, abuse and accuracy and establishes a clear framework for proceeding.
All we lack is the political will. We therefore urge Gov. Lamont again to establish the voter participation committee so that it can quickly provide the foundation for the legislative action needed to implement the vote by mail option for Nov. 3 and for all future federal and state elections.