‘Democrats to Make Absentee Voting ‘For All’’ | CT Examiner

Article from the CT Examiner:

Democratic legislators will make absentee voting for all and improved balloting for early voting one of their top priorities in the 2026 legislative session, State Rep. Matt Blumenthal, D-Stamford told CT Examiner this week.

Blumenthal, who is co-chair of the Government Administration & Elections committee. said absentee voting for all was put to the test when 56 percent of the voters approved a 2024 constitutional amendment on the measure.

“Probably our Number 1 priority is to implement absentee voting for all,” said Blumenthal, regarding his committee’s work. “Voters overwhelmingly [seemed] to indicate that they wanted the ability to vote absentee without regard to having to provide a reason, so it’s incumbent for us to deliver them a method of voting that is widespread, safe, secure and convenient.”

A yes vote for the 2024 amendment authorized the state legislature to pass a law allowing any registered voter to request a mail-in ballot. Current law requires that a voter must have an excuse to request an absentee mail-in ballot.

Blumenthal noted that 37 other states and Washington, D.C. already have absentee voting for all and that Connecticut needs to play catch up.

Asked to comment on claims that increased absentee voting could lead to fraud, Blumenthal countered, “These are well-established voting technologies with a good record of convenience and safety across the country and instances of fraud are vanishingly rare.”

Ranking Member on the committee State Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott, told CT Examiner he would have liked Blumenthal to have shared his plans with the Republicans on the committee first.

“The first thing I have in response is that I’m glad that Matt Blumenthal is telling the press what his plans are before he’s telling me,” said Sampson, who added, “Absentee voting for all is the the law in Connecticut by virtue of the constitutional amendment being passed by the voters. So, we have to adopt that policy anyway.”

But Blumenthal and Sampson were on the same page regarding the proposed changes early voting.

Currently, early voting in Connecticut requires voters to fill out a ballot and put it in an envelope, which is then stored in a secure container and held until Election Day when it is processed and counted.

Both lawmakers agreed that makes no sense.

“That single envelope [provision] seems to have satisfied nobody,” Blumenthal told CT Examiner. “It does provide an opportunity for someone to mess up handling the envelope, meaning the voter, and have the vote not count potentially. It also does not absolutely prevent someone from figuring out whose ballot it is.”

Sampson said the current process “is an open door for fraud. People can just simply dispose of the ballots because they [election workers] know who voted. In my view, it’s a tremendous violation of the notion of a secret ballot. As long as we have early voting it should be done properly.”

In place of the current system, Blumenthal said the committee will recommend that voters directly feed their ballot into a tabulator, similar to on Election Day.

Blumenthal said using the tabulator system is “easier on the registrars and makes everyone’s vote even more secure.”

Asked by CT Examiner if there were any provision expected to address voter fraud, in wake of cases in Bridgeport which have seen 11 people arrested on charges involving absentee ballot fraud in the 2019 and 2023 mayoral primaries in that city, Blumenthal responded, “I don’t want to speak to specific allegations of what happened in Bridgeport, but I will say that we are hoping to pass along with absentee voting for all additional measures that would increase the security of absentee voting, including tracking absentee ballots.”

Sampson told CT Examiner that, in his view, Democrats want no part of making elections safe and secure.

“I want to say that Rep. Blumenthal and the Connecticut legislative Democrats have shown absolutely zero desire to correct election fraud or what’s happening in Bridgeport or anywhere else, and I don’t believe that they will this year or any year in the future,” Sampson said. “I can’t speak to their motivations other than [to say] they have no desire to secure our elections. They voted down photo identification voting on party lines maybe half a dozen times in the last five or six years that I’ve offered it on the floor of the Senate.”

Sampson said the Democratic majority has also voted down added penalties for violating election laws like those in Bridgeport.

In response, Blumenthal said that, “in 2024 we passed major elections security reforms addressed directly at the alleged misconduct in Bridgeport. These Republican proposals would do nothing to prevent anything alleged in Bridgeport and have been shown to disenfranchise large numbers of voters. … We stand ready to implement any proposal that increases election security and efficiency without disenfranchising Connecticut voters.”

On Thursday, a second Bridgeport election campaign worker pleaded guilty to absentee ballot fraud. Nilsa Heredia pleaded guilty to illegal possession of an absentee ballot, misrepresenting eligibility requirements for absentee ballots, and tampering with a witness.

The New Haven-based The Connecticut Project Action Fund, a four-year old nonprofit, has lobbied and pushed for years for absentee voting for all.

Coralys Santana, campaign manager for The Connecticut Project Action Fund, said absentee voting for all is important “especially for working families that are juggling job responsibilities and family responsibilities, and voting in person during specific hours is difficult.”

Santana said the issue was one of the first The Connecticut Project Action Fund got behind, saying the nonprofit heard from voters from around the state during the time when the constitutional amendment was in the news, saying they were told residents wanted to vote absentee but “didn’t have a qualifying reason. … This will now give people more freedom to choose how to vote.”