Primary election
Every Connecticut voter will be able to cast a mail-in or drop-off absentee ballot in the state's August presidential primary if no COVID-19 vaccine is widely available by then, per a new executive order issued by Gov. Ned Lamont.
Every Connecticut voter will be able to cast a mail-in or drop-off absentee ballot in the state’s delayed-to-August presidential primary election if no COVID-19 vaccine is widely available by then, per a new executive order issued Wednesday by Gov. Ned Lamont.
The order comes the same day that President Donald Trump blasted officials in Michigan and Nevada for their plans to send absentee ballot applications to millions of voters — as Connecticut already had announced — and said that he would withhold some unspecified funding from those states in retaliation.
Lamont shrugged off the president’s threats at his daily coronavirus news briefing Wednesday afternoon, and pledged to work toward a similar measure for the upcoming November general election.
“First of all, it’s worth noting the president himself voted by absentee ballot in the last election,” Lamont said.
“We’re issuing an executive order today that says if we don’t have a vaccine in time for our primary, then you’re eligible for an absentee ballot if you feel your health may be at risk,” he continued. “I think that’s the appropriate thing to do. I’m telling people over the age of 65, I’m telling people with preexisting conditions, stay home. And yet they don’t give up their right to vote just ’cause I’ve got that order there.”
The new order expands on the plan Connecticut Secretary of the State Denise Merrill announced earlier this month to send absentee ballot applications to every registered voter in the state eligible to vote in the Aug. 11 primary and pay the postage for their ballots. Merrill’s office also will provide grants to municipalities, recruit and train general election poll workers and launch a public awareness campaign.
Merrill lauded the new order and urged state lawmakers to make the same thing possible for the Nov. 3 general election.
“Polling places will remain open, but every eligible Connecticut voter will be able to get an absentee ballot for the August primary if they want to avoid their polling place due to COVID-19,” Merrill said in a statement Wednesday. “The legislature should change the absentee ballot statute
to make a global pandemic a valid excuse to vote by mail so that voters will have the same choice in November.”
States across the country, with top election officials from both parties, have made moves to expand mail-in absentee voting to provide an option for those who should not vote in person with the threat of COVID-19 lingering well into the summer and fall.
The measures are designed to limit the number of people lined up in-person at polling places on Election Day, like those seen in Wisconsin earlier this spring, where sick voters or asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers could inadvertently spread the virus to many others.
But the president frequently stokes fears about supposed voter fraud through mail-in balloting, despite his own commission’s conclusion that there is not widespread mail-in ballot fraud, and invoked those fears again in his tweets lambasting Michigan and Nevada on Wednesday morning.
The president’s tweets threatened to withhold funding from those states, but didn’t specify what funding or whether other states that are expanding absentee voting, like Connecticut, also would be threatened. Neither Lamont nor Merrill directly addressed the president’s comments in their own on Wednesday.
Under the new plan, Merrill’s office also will provide “secure and tamper-proof drop boxes manufactured specifically for the purpose of voting” so that absentee voters can drop off their ballots at their local town clerk’s office, according to the executive order. The state will purchase and distribute 174 Americanmade drop boxes to every town, including two for the five largest cities, and the $350,000 purchase will be funded by the federal CARES Act that sent millions to states to improve security and health safety protocols at voting places.
The drop boxes are supposed to provide an option for those who cannot mail their absentee ballot to election officials without having any in-person contact, during which they could be exposed to the virus.
But Senate Republican leader Len Fasano argued the drop boxes will not be secure and challenged Lamont and Merrill to revise the plan.
“Setting up unattended outside drop boxes for people to submit their ballots contradicts state law which requires in-person return of absentee ballots for security purposes and to protect the integrity of the voting system,” Fasano said in a lengthy statement. “Drop boxes present unique security issues related to stuffing ballot boxes, which is why state law clearly emphasizes the importance of inperson absentee ballot returns.”
Both Lamont and Merrill have called on state lawmakers to reconvene and establish similar mail-in voting rules for the Nov. 3 general election, which has not been moved due to the pandemic and could only be delayed by Congress.
“We must guarantee access to the ballot, and this is a way to do that during these extraordinary circumstances,” Lamont said. “I do not take this decision lightly, and it is with the public health and welfare of residents in mind.”