HARTFORD, Conn. — The process is underway to implement early voting in Connecticut and Wednesday, lawmakers heard input from the public.
About 60 people signed up to speak at the more than five-hour-long public hearing to voice their opinions on what early voting should look like in the state.
“A functional democracy is not one that's only open on a single Tuesday,” said Helen Humphreys, communications coordinator with the Connecticut Citizen Action Group.
Connecticut is currently one of only four states without early voting, but that will soon change.
“It is time for Connecticut to catch up and be at the forefront of sustaining democratic institutions,” said Yale student Nicole Chen during the hearing.
Voters passed an amendment in November, changing the state constitution to allow the legislature to pass laws to implement early in-person voting.
Now lawmakers are deciding what that will actually look like in Connecticut.
Multiple bill proposals were taken up at Wednesday’s Government Administration and Elections Committee hearing. Legislators heard public testimony on seven different measures regarding early voting and no-excuse absentee ballots.
“One of the reasons why we've had multiple bills in committee on early voting is that we want to give people options,” said committee co-chair Rep. Matt Blumenthal (D-Stamford).
Proposals range up to 18 days of early voting. Blumenthal said lawmakers are leaning toward 14, but the Secretary of the State is recommending 10 days.
“We're late to the party as one of only four states that currently don't have early voting and people don't want us to be kind of last in line or at the bottom of the barrel as well,” Blumenthal said.
“People tend to use it in the very beginning of the early voting window and the last week of right before the election,” said Sec. Stephanie Thomas. “So I think 10 days is the best of all worlds, two full weekends, the week right before the election.”
Some Republicans on the GAE Committee are trying to scale that back.
“I don't know that we need as much as three weeks of early voting,” said ranking member Sen. Rob Sampson, (R-Cheshire). “10 days is probably on the outside of what I would consider to be reasonable.”
It's not just about the number of days. Thomas is also urging the legislature to provide enough funding for municipalities to implement the program.
“Don’t bother passing this bill if there’s no money attributed to it,” she said during the public hearing. “We are waiting on the Office of Fiscal Analysis to come up with a cost, but I think it'll be a cost that is more than fair for people to vote.”
Lawmakers agree this is a priority.
“I don't know that the public necessarily is prepared for paying an additional cost for having early voting, so I think we have to find a nice compromise,” Sampson added. “I'm not against early voting, I just want to do it right.”
“We're probably going to be tweaking things a little bit as we go forward based on lessons learned,” said Blumenthal. “Work out the kinks for the bigger, more populous election next year.”
Thomas is asking the legislature to pass a bill no later than March 31. She wants enough time for towns to prepare, hoping to implement early voting by the November 2023 municipal elections.
Emma Wulfhorst is a political reporter for FOX61 News. She can be reached at ewulfhorst@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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