New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Bill to help expand mail-in voting opportunities clears the state Senate
HARTFORD — Amid claims of election ballot fraud, a conservative lawmaker made eight attempts Wednesday to rewrite a bill that would allow for expanded mail-in voting this November. But even his proposal to cut-and-paste a section of the state Constitution was rejected by majority Democrats.
During a virtuoso 31⁄2-hour stand-up in the state Senate, Sen. Rob Sampson, of Wolcott, warned that a law passed in the House of Representatives last week was a dodge around the Constitution, which limits mailin ballots to a voter’s sickness, military service, work at polling places, or if they are out-of-town all day for business or school.
“I can honestly say that you could look at the language that is in the bill before us several different ways, and I don’t know that you’d necessarily be right or wrong, but I also think that that’s part of the problem and something that we should address,” Sampson said.
The new law would allow voters to apply for absentee ballots even if they were worried about possible sickness or physical disability of others, rather than their individual sickness. Under the bill, qualified voters could also cast mail-in ballots because of their absence from their city or town during part of election days.
“My concern is that this definition is so loose that what will happen is, it will allow a legitimate claim that every person in the state of Connecticut would be eligible for an absentee ballot, based on the intangible definition of illness,” Sampson said.
The bill was approved 30-4 after a 41⁄2-hour debate. Any amendment accepted by the Senate would have sent the legislation back to the House, which passed the bill in a bipartisan 126-16 vote last week.
State Sen. Mae Flexer, D-Killingly, cochairwoman of the legislative Government Administration and Elections Committee, asked for the rejection of each of Sampson’s eight amendments, one of which would have moved the statewide outdoor drop boxes, purchased by Secretary of the State Denise Merrill with federal pandemic-relief funding, to the inside of municipal buildings, where video surveillance would be required.
Sampson said he had drafted as many as 19 amendments, including one that would begin the system of signature verification of electors, a controversial tactic that has been criticized as voter suppression. “It results in many voters being disenfranchised,” Flexer said, asking Democrats to also vote against Sampson’s proposals.
All but one of Sampson’s amendments failed along party lines, 22-12, with two absent. But one amendment, which was based on a template from the conservative Heritage Foundation, would have required the secretary of the state to confirm the citizenship and immigration status of voters. Sen. Tony Hwang, of Fairfield, who was born in Taiwan and is a naturalized citizen, sided with Democrats against the measure.
State Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, who is considering a campaign for secretary of the state, said Connecticut’s absentee ballot rules are the most restrictive in the nation. In particular, it will help commuters cast their ballots.
“When you make voting a little easier, people use it,” Lesser said, noting that the 2020 election turnout set a statewide records for turnout.
Flexer noted that over the last two years, one of the most-important pandemic-related issues has been the ability of people to vote.
“Over that period of time we have debated several different measures to make sure people could exercise their right to vote,” Flexer said. “This language will put our state statutes in concert with the language in our state’s Constitution. It will empower voters who still continue to have concern about the pandemic for example, to be able to exercise their right to vote using an absentee ballot because that person is unable to appear due to sickness.”
Merrill, using federal funding in 2020, mailed applications for absentee ballots to every registered voter, a policy that Sampson characterized as inviting ballot fraud.
Currently, there will be a statewide ballot question this November on possibly amending the state Constitution to include early voting. Republican opposition to a related question, which is on-track to make the statewide ballot in 2024, would authorize no-excuse absentee balloting.“
We are prudent to be cautious and that’s what this bill will do,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, warning that the COVID pandemic can again rage and frighten voters. “We are still haunted by this disease, and we need to make provisions for the fall.”
Those who voted against the bill, all Republicans, included Sens. Dan Champagne of Vernon, Henri Martin of Bristol, and
John Kissel of Enfield, as well as Sampson.