Connecticut approves constitution change easing restrictions on mail-in voting

Connecticut voters on Tuesday approved an amendment to the state’s constitution that could make it easier to cast ballots by mail or through drop boxes in future elections.

The amendment lifts long-standing restrictions that only allowed people in the state to vote by absentee ballot if they were going to be out of town, are sick or disabled, or couldn’t get to a polling location because of religious restrictions.

Passage of the amendment doesn’t automatically mean Connecticut will join the 36 states that allow people to vote by mail without needing an excuse for not going to a polling place in person. But it gives state lawmakers the ability to enact laws allowing more widespread mail-in voting, according to Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas.

State Rep. Matt Blumenthal, a Democrat who co-chairs the General Assembly’s Government Administration and Elections Committee, had pitched the amendment as an opportunity to “free our state from the shackles of a long history of overly restrictive voting laws.”

Thomas, a Democrat, had recommended that if the amendment passed, legislators should take a year to research and design a “holistic” system that also includes early voting and voting in person.

Connecticut voters recently agreed to change the state’s constitution to allow early in-person voting, which took place for the first time in the March primaries. There were 14 days of early voting for the general election. Besides being mailed, absentee ballots can also be put in drop boxes located in every city and town, or submitted to local election offices.

Twenty-eight states let voters request an absentee ballot without requiring an excuse, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Eight more states, plus Washington, D.C., go a step further and automatically mail a ballot to all registered voters without them having to request one.

Critics of Connecticut’s proposed change, mostly Republicans, have questioned the safeguards surrounding the state’s current absentee ballot system.

In the state’s largest city, Bridgeport, there were allegations of abuses of absentee ballots during the Democratic mayoral primaries in 2019 and 2023. Last year, a judge ordered the Bridgeport mayoral election redone after campaign volunteers were caught on camera stuffing wads of other people’s absentee ballots into collection boxes.

“It is clear the current absentee ballot system currently in place is broken,” Sen. Rob Sampson and Rep. Gale Mastrofrancesco, the top Republicans on the Government Administration and Elections Committee, said in a statement before Tuesday’s vote.

“In Bridgeport, investigations have shown that people were illegally cheating the system, yet this ballot measure would expand the use of absentee ballots, opening the door to even more fraud and misuse,” they said.

Both Republicans said they would also oppose any change that would lead to ballots being automatically mailed to qualified voters.

Thomas has noted that states with universal access have implemented systems with greater ballot security and voter protection. Requiring things like basic personal information, the last four digits of a Social Security number or a driver’s license number might be considered by Connecticut legislators now that the amendment has passed.

Patricia Rossi, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Connecticut, said the state’s current absentee voting rules leave out people who might not be able to make it to a polling place on Election Day for other good reasons, like having to work or act as someone’s caregiver, or because they couldn’t access transportation.

Coralys Santana, policy and advocacy strategist for The Connecticut Project Action Fund, a group promoting the ballot measure, contends that easing voting rules would benefit people of all political ideologies.

“There can be a partisan divide if folks choose that,” Santata said. “But I think for the most part, this measure is nonpartisan and is just about equal opportunity and access to the ballot box.”