Early Voting On The Ballot Election Day In CT: Here's What You Need To Know

CONNECTICUT — Voters will get to decide whether The Land of Steady Habits should join 46 others states that have some form of early voting.

The question is, “Shall the Constitution of the State be amended to permit the General Assembly to provide for early voting?”

Connecticut is an outlier when it comes to how voting is conducted. There is a single day of in-person voting, and a strict list of ways to qualify for an absentee ballot.

“It shouldn’t be so onerous, if you are an eligible citizen you should be able to vote conveniently,” Connecticut League of Women Voters President Laura Smits said.

The General Assembly will decide on the exact nature of early voting, should voters say yes on the ballot.

About 52 percent of likely voters plan to vote yes on the ballot measure, according to a WTNH/Emerson College poll. Another 35 percent plan to vote no, and about 13 percent are undecided.

Only 27 percent of 2020 U.S. voters said they voted in person on Election Day, according to a Pew Research Center poll. Another 27 percent voted in person before Election Day, and 46 percent voted by absentee or mail-in ballot.

Early voting periods across the country range from three days to 46 days, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The average is 23 days.

Connecticut will probably end up with a few early voting days, and Smits hopes for at least one weekend day, she said. The issue has been since 2014 when the last early voting ballot question failed. About 450,000 voters supported the measure and more than 494,000 against it.

“We aren’t coming at it cold, we’ve looked at it before, and we know how other states have done it,” she said. “I don’t foresee us doing weeks, but it's obviously up to the legislature.”

The state has already voter registration convenient, including Election Day registration, Smits said.

She hopeful that the ballot question will pass. The 2014 language was confusing, and the initiative wasn’t well-published. Plus, voters got to experience a different form of casting ballots in 2020 due to the pandemic.

“Covid gave us the momentum to suddenly pay attention,” she said. “We are a progressive state, why is this so difficult?”

Former Secretary of the State Denise Merrill is also a strong supporter of early voting.

Secretary of the state candidates weigh in

Democratic secretary of the state candidate Stephanie Thomas said she would likely recommend somewhere between two and five early voting days if the measure passes. She voiced strong support for the measure during her debate with Republican candidate Dominic Rapini. Thomas served as vice chair of the elections committee, which helped craft the ballot question.

There is often a perception that early voting is good for people of lower socioeconomic status and people of color, which is true, Thomas said, but early voting would benefit everyone. It would benefit the elderly with unpredictable health problems, young mothers whose children wake up sick on Election Day, and people with unreliable transportation.

“Connecticut is one of only four states that does not have some early voting, and we’re talking about early in person voting,” she said. “So we do have challenges because of our 169 town structure, we do have to make sure that whatever the legislature decides to do, that we attach the funding so that these costs don’t get pushed down to individual towns.”

Rapini said he isn’t in favor of early voting in Connecticut. He said during a debate that the legislature was being given a “blank check” to decide what early voting would look like, and that it could be an unfunded mandate for local towns.

“We're all worried about costs, and we're worried about investments,” he said during the debate. “...I'd love to invest in elections, but you know what, this is not where I want to put our money.”

He would advocate for three or fewer early voting days if the ballot question passes.