CONNECTICUT, USA — On Wednesday, the Connecticut chapter of American Civil Liberties Union, League of Women Voters and League of Conservation Voters joined forces to launch a statewide campaign to support no excuse absentee voting.
It’s an issue you’ll see on the ballot in November. Thirty-six states have some form of no excuse absentee voting. Connecticut is not one of them. Here in the Constitution State, voting absentee is only allowed under six excuses.
They are…
- Out of town on Election Day
- Sickness
- Religious beliefs
- Performing election official duties
- Physical disability
- Active member of the Armed Forces
Changing that requires changing the state constitution. That’s what a ‘yes’ vote does in November. It would allow anyone to vote absentee for any reason.
“This is an important next step to make sure people can exercise their right to vote,” remarked ACLU of Connecticut RISE PAC Chair David McGuire.
The ACLU’s RISE political action committee launched their statewide campaign to expand voter access alongside the League of Women Voters and the League of Conservation Voters.
But this year, absentee ballot fraud caught on camera in Bridgeport is casting a shadow on absentee ballot expansion.
“When it comes to voter integrity, Connecticut is probably one of the loosest states in the country,” remarked State Rep. Vincent Candelora, the minority leader.
Connecticut’s majority party passed several election integrity reforms this past legislative session, but they also rejected voter identification and signature verification.
“The voters in Connecticut. Buyer beware. The Secretary of the State doesn’t have a good track record of protecting voter integrity, and I think absentee ballot voting under its current construct is only going to invite more fraud into the system,” remarked Candelora.
FOX61 spoke with the Secretary of the State who said all elections are local.
“Should we move to no fault or no excuse absentee voting will see the same thing. Every single jurisdiction that does any of these reforms does them differently and in many jurisdictions these are reforms that were put in place to cut down on any election fraud,” said Stephanie Thomas.
If no excuse absentee voting is approved in November, it’ll be up to lawmakers on how to best implement it.
Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas is in Bridgeport Wednesday for an educational forum at 7 p.m. on Main Street with the group Bridgeport Generation Votes Now.
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Matt Caron is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at mcaron@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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