This fall, Connecticut voters will decide whether to amend the state constitution to permit state lawmakers to allow no-excuse absentee voting.
That would expand current law, which only permits voting by mail under specific conditions like illness, physical disability, religious beliefs or traveling. Expanding the law would align Connecticut with many other states that already allow all voters to choose whether to vote absentee.
Denise Merrill, Connecticut’s former secretary of the state, is among those who support no-excuse absentee voting.
“We've been trying for almost a decade to get this measure on the ballot,” Merrill told Connecticut Public Radio’s “Morning Edition.” “So that the entire public can vote on whether or not they would like to be able to use an absentee ballot, without having to have one of our excuses that are actually [listed] in the state constitution.”
If voters were to approve no-excuse absentee voting, it wouldn’t happen immediately. The matter would then be sent to the General Assembly, where state lawmakers would decide whether to pass legislation to expand absentee voting.
How no-excuse absentee voting works
Absentee voting is allowed in most states without an excuse, Merrill said.
“Like 80% of the states already allow this,” she said. “We are behind for once, but that's because our law about who gets to use an absentee ballot is enshrined in our state constitution.”
It’s a “very unusual provision” in Connecticut’s constitution because most other states put the specifics of voting laws like these in state statute, she said.
“It's easier to keep up with the times, shall we say, if it's in statute,” Merrill said.
Why Merrill supports no-excuse absentee voting
For Merrill, the COVID-19 pandemic sparked an epiphany about no-excuse absentee voting.
“That's when you really saw the need for this particular legislation, should it pass,” Merrill said.
Merrill was secretary of the state during the 2020 presidential election, near the height of the pandemic.
“All of a sudden, we had hundreds of people calling my then-office,” she remembered. “They were being told not to go out in public, don't gather in places where there's lots of people, which there are on Election Day.”
Election officials moved quickly to figure out how to best accommodate people who were afraid of contracting COVID-19 when voting in person at the polls.
“You have your right to vote. It's an absolute right. It is not a privilege. It is a right that you have as a citizen of this country, and on the other side, you have the dangers of a pandemic,” Merrill said. “So we found a way to look at our constitutional law and the statute that interprets it.”
Under the state constitution, absentee ballots could be requested due to illness.
“Almost 30% of people chose to use an absentee ballot and I think that was the change that moment,” Merrill said.
Security of the process
Merrill stresses that the absentee ballot process is secure.
“There are so many protections it's almost confusing, to be honest,” Merrill said. “It's very closely monitored.“
Merrill explained that absentee ballots have two envelopes to protect the secrecy of the ballot and it’s separate from the mailing envelope. In addition to that, several layers of election officials oversee the absentee ballot process.
“Here in Connecticut, we have two registrars, one from each of the major parties, that are handling all the ballot process and the lists,” she said. “We have town clerks that are also involved and they log things in. There's a lot in place.”
There are critics of the ballot measure. Connecticut Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, a Brookfield Republican, said voters should have a “healthy dose of skepticism” especially in light of what has happened in Bridgeport, which has a history of issues with absentee ballots. Earlier this year, four campaign workers were charged with mishandling absentee ballots in Bridgeport in a previous mayoral primary election.
Merrill addressed those concerns in her conversation with Connecticut Public.
“I have to remind people that in Bridgeport, the allegation was not that anybody voted fraudulently,” Merrill said. “There was nobody trying to vote twice.”
A judge ordered a re-do of the 2023 Bridgeport mayoral primary after reviewing a video recording of a city employee dropping off what appeared to be multiple absentee ballots into an outdoor ballot drop box.
“What was at stake was the fact that someone who wasn't supposed to be delivering absentee ballots for somebody else was putting them in the drop box – a much different form of fraud,” Merrill said. “It's still not OK, but I think there are so many levels of protection that we use here in Connecticut and most states.”
Merrill said voters should feel confident casting a ballot in this state.
“I think people can feel very secure about even an absentee ballot, where people are not coming in person, which is, by the way, the primary difference between that and, let's say, early voting,” she said.
Absentee vs early voting
A decade ago, Connecticut voters had the chance to approve no-excuse absentee ballot voting, but Merrill said people got confused by the wording of the ballot question, which lumped in early voting and absentee voting.
“It was all in one constitutional question, which was, ‘shall the state legislature be able to change the constitution in order to allow for early voting and or absentee ballots being liberalized,’” Merrill said. “And so I think the language got so confusing that people voted no or just ignored it.”
Merrill says it’s a problem if voters come unprepared to consider ballot measures.
“These questions, especially in a presidential year like this year, where all the attention is on that race, I'm worried that people won't know it's there. I'm just hopeful that people see it,” she said.
Towns across the state have different ballot layouts, so the absentee voting question is in different places on the ballot depending where a voter lives, Merrill noted.
“So on my ballot it was right at the top, so you could see it pretty clearly. It was even above the line for president. So that was helpful. But it's not going to be there in every town,” she said. “ Some towns, it'll be perhaps even on the second side of the ballot. So people have to turn it over to see. It depends how long your ballot is. But it will be worded the same.”
If voters want to look at the wording before casting their ballot, the secretary of the state's office has that up online.
“Even if the measure passes, it doesn't happen automatically,” Merrill said. “The legislature still has to vote for the details of how that would work.”
Next steps
If voters approve the no-excuse absentee ballot measure, then the matter heads to state lawmakers. In their next legislative session in 2025, they could pass a bill to allow it.
Merrill notes that no-excuse absentee voting has been “well received” by state lawmakers.
“They would be able to immediately put into place some form of absentee ballot rules, probably very much following what we're already doing,” Merrill said. “Then that could go into place for the next municipal election.”
