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This fall, voters will find the following question on their ballot: “Shall the Constitution of the State be amended to permit the General Assembly to allow each voter to vote by absentee ballot?”
Voters should answer that question “Yes,” and allow us to join the 36 other states (and the District of Columbia) that allow every eligible voter who wishes to vote absentee. Here’s why.
This year’s ballot measure is the culmination of more than 150 years of work. In 1861, young Nutmeggers marched to the Civil War, fighting and dying by the thousands to preserve the Union and end slavery. While they were gone, however, they were deprived of their most fundamental democratic right: they could not vote. In 1862, the legislature passed a law to correct this injustice. But that December, the Connecticut Supreme Court shot it down, holding that absentee voting violated the state Constitution.
The right to vote is one of the most sacred American rights, enshrined in both our federal and state constitutions. “Where there is disenfranchisement,” our state Supreme Court has declared, “a grievous wrong is done to the citizen.”
But that 1862 decision was not the first — or the last — time that our state Constitution’s restrictions on voting would stand in the way of democracy. From the state’s establishment until 1814, only landowners could vote. Connecticut’s 1818 Constitution restricted eligibility to vote to white men until 1870.
And in reaction to the Supreme Court’s 1862 ruling, our state adopted a uniquely tightfisted solution: a temporary constitutional amendment allowing soldiers to vote absentee only for the duration of the Civil War.
Progress has been slow. In 1918, Connecticut — again, only temporarily — passed legislation allowing soldiers serving abroad in World War I to vote absentee. Absentee voting was first allowed for people who could not appear at the polls because of absence from their municipality, sickness, or physical disability in 1932. Those whose religious dictates barred election-day voting were first allowed an absentee ballot in 1964. Today, our absentee-ballot laws are still some of the most restrictive in the country.
In recent years, we’ve made important progress in overcoming that history. In 2022, we passed legislation expanding absentee voting to its constitutional maximum for commuters, healthcare workers, and caretakers. A ballot measure to allow in-person early voting passed by a more-than-20-point margin in 2022. In 2023, we passed legislation implementing 14 days of Early Voting, as well as the Connecticut John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, “the nation’s most comprehensive state-level voting rights act.” This past year, we passed legislation to increase election security and transparency and protect election workers from threats, harassment, and violence. I was proud to co-author and help lead passage of all these measures.
But our most important work is still ahead. Our state Constitution still limits absentee-ballot access to six specific reasons. But we can change that this year.
Absentee Voting for Everyone is the final — and most important — key to unlocking democracy across our state. First, every eligible voter deserves to be able to exercise the franchise safely, securely, and conveniently. In 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we were able to authorize — once again, only temporarily — absentee voting for all eligible voters. The results spoke for themselves: turnout increased to a record-breaking 79.7 percent. Lines at polling places were reduced. Voters — especially seniors, people with disabilities, and working people — overwhelmingly reported satisfaction with their experience.
And not only would it help voters: it would also make our elections cheaper and easier to administer. With absentee voting authorized for all voters, we could better harmonize our absentee-voting and early-voting systems, reducing expense to our towns and making election administration less arduous for our registrars and town clerks.
And Absentee Voting for Everyone would make our elections more secure. Across states that utilize it, statistics show voter fraud is “vanishingly rare.” That’s because Absentee Voting for Everyone reduces any incentive to engage in fraud — while increasing deterrence of misconduct.
Why is that? The lion’s share of absentee-ballot-related improprieties in Connecticut elections have involved attempts to obtain absentee ballots for individuals not eligible under our restrictive state laws. But if every voter can vote absentee, there’s little incentive to cheat. Expanding access also prevents campaign workers from focusing on a small, defined, potentially vulnerable group of voters. Finally, allowing every eligible voter to vote absentee increases deterrence against fraud: someone tempted to submit an absentee ballot for someone else will never know if that voter has submitted one themself. They’ll know they’re almost certain to get caught — and face serious criminal penalties.
Connecticut’s voters deserve to vote conveniently, safely, and securely. Our elections officials deserve a system that works smoothly and efficiently. Our towns and state deserve to save money while providing maximum ballot access. This fall, we can finally free our state from the shackles of a long history of overly restrictive voting laws: Let’s vote “Yes” for Absentee Voting for Everyone.
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