By James Maroney
State Sen. D-14
James Maroney
Voting is one of the most fundamental rights in our democracy. That is why I was proud to join with my colleagues in an overwhelmingly bipartisan manner to support a measure that eases voting restrictions in Connecticut.
Connecticut has some of the most restrictive voting laws in the country, and the bill we passed, “An Act Revising Certain Absentee Voting Eligibility Statutes,” brings our state statutes in line with our state constitution.
According to the Connecticut constitution, there are only six reasons why someone can qualify for an absentee ballot. However, our state statutes had more limitations on those six reasons than were prescribed in the constitution. The law expands two of the six reasons why qualified voters can participate in an election via absentee ballot. Under the bill, qualified voters may vote by absentee if they are unable to appear in person because of “sickness,” instead of their own illness, and due to “physical disability,” instead of their own physical disability. This allows for a caretaker for someone else to request an absentee ballot for themselves.
The bill also allows voters to cast absentee ballots if they are unable to appear at their polling place due to absence from the town they are registered to vote in, updating language allowing that reason only in cases where a voter is absent during all hours of voting.
One of the byproducts of the pandemic is that many people realized that they enjoyed the ability to vote by absentee ballot. As Connecticut works to return to normalcy following the pandemic, many people still want to enjoy that convenience. Instituting a way to increase access to those who may not be able to make it to the polls physically on election day increases the odds for residents to access their voting rights.
In statistics, we know that the larger the sample size the smaller the margin of error. By easing unnecessary restrictions and making it easier for our citizens to exercise their right to vote, we will hopefully arrive at better decisions. Increasing access to voting rights has been one of my priorities and I am happy that in Connecticut we were able to accomplish this in a bipartisan manner.