by Jamil Ragland CTNewsJunkie
HARTFORD, CT – Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas visited the Asylum Hill Congregational Church on Tuesday to discuss changes to Connecticut voting law designed to make voting more accessible, and to push for support of an upcoming ballot initiative that would put Connecticut on the path to adopting no-excuse absentee ballot voting.
“A lot of people ask me, why do we need early voting and no excuse absentee voting?” Secretary Thomas said to a room that included advocates from the League of Conservation Voters of Connecticut’s Education Fund, the Hispanic Health Council, and the American Civil Liberties Union. “And the truth is because many people have many different preferences – some people like to vote in person, so they love early voting because it gives them that election day experience.”
Thomas continued: “Some people, when they came to testify in the legislature, talked about how they really want no excuse absentee voting because they like sitting in the comfort of their home, Googling everything on the ballot and making my decisions in real time. And some people will have reasons totally unknown to us, but the real point to me is we want to make sure we have systems in place that allow everyone who wants to vote, to vote in a way that works for their lifestyle.”
Thomas explained that this November’s election will include a ballot initiative to ask voters to authorize no-excuse absentee voting. By voting yes, voters will empower the legislature to consider one more time the option to amend the state Constitution to allow no-excuse absentee voting.
The initiative has already passed a relatively high bar for approval as both legislative chambers have approved the measure with simple majorities for two consecutive years, which is the requirement if a 75% majority isn’t achieved in both chambers on the first attempt.
Thomas stressed that this year is the best opportunity the state has to change the law.
“I’m still learning about federal and municipal government,” she said in addressing the complicated process of changing voting laws. “But what I remind people, and I’ll leave you with this, is taking the time to get involved and to learn about these things is difficult, but it’s much easier than living under bad policy.”
Megan Scharrer, policy advocacy manager for the Hispanic Health Council, echoed Thomas’ point about the importance of getting involved in the voting and governing process.
“We’re seeing that the Latino community is not voting. For example, in 2019, in Frog Hollow where the Hispanic Health Council is primarily located, the population is like 72% Latino. And then for the mayor election alone, only 11% of the neighborhood voted,” Scharrer said. “So there’s a huge Latino community, but 11% in total of all demographics was voting. And it’s really important to vote because your voice is heard when you vote. The person that is going to represent your town, to represent your state, represent you in the United States, you’re choosing that person.”
L to R: Megan Scharrer, policy advocacy manager for the Hispanic Health Council, and Anderson Curtis, senior policy organizer for the ACLU of Connecticut, discuss the importance of participating in the political process Tuesday at the Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford. Credit: Jamil Ragland / CTNewsJunkie
Anderson Curtis, senior policy organizer for the ACLU, challenged the audience to make sure that they are working to get more people involved in the political process.
“As an organizer, I’m always inviting you to explore your role,” Curtis said. “You don’t need to be convinced about the power of the vote. That’s why you’re sitting here. But what I want to talk to you about is, not only what is your voting plan, right, but maybe your voting plan could be helping other people to vote, right? Because if we have 20 people in this room, and each of you teach just two people to help develop the voting plan, guess what? Now, that’s 60 people coming to the polls. And that’s where the power is. That’s where the power of change is. The power is right here in these seats.”
The evening ended with the specter of voting improprieties in Bridgeport still looming large. During the question and answer session, one audience member asked the secretary how no-excuse absentee voting could be secure based on what happened during the Democratic mayoral primary in Bridgeport.
Thomas explained that there is some confusion about what happened in the state’s largest city. In some cases, the problem was that voters gave their absentee ballots to a third party to deliver to the ballot box. That’s illegal under Connecticut law, but that crime did not alter the vote tally or disenfranchise anyone.
“But that’s very different from some of the stories about people bartering, like, if you vote a certain way, I’ll give you your Section 8 voucher,” Thomas said. “That is a very different type of crime to the voter. So, what we can tell people is that no-excuse absentee voting will not create or solve a worse problem, right? We passed a lot of laws last year that closed some of the biggest loopholes in Bridgeport, and I won’t get into all of them.”
Thomas further explained that many states use no-excuse absentee ballot voting to cut down on fraud, by regulating the distribution of absentee ballots at the local and state government levels, instead of allowing political parties and individuals to request ballots, which she said could lead to wrongdoing.