Ballot Q: ​“No Excuses” = More Democracy?

If you no longer have to lie about needing to vote absentee — would that cut down on fraud?

Or, conversely, would no-excuses absentee balloting enable campaign workers to pressure more senior citizens and other voters in the privacy of their homes not to make a choice in privacy?

Connecticut might soon find out the answer to those questions. On Nov. 5 a referendum question will appear on ballots statewide to allow the legislature to pass no-excuses absentee ballot voting, meaning you don’t need to say you’ll be out of town or otherwise physically unable to make it to the polls on election day (or, now the weeks of early-voting) in order to obtain and cast an absentee ballot. Connecticut would join 28 other states in instituting no-excuses absentee voting.

Two proponents of early voting — Hamden State Rep. Joshua Elliott and Hamden City Clerk Karimah Mickens — made the case for approving the referendum, during an appearance Thursday on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program. Channeling, say, this CBS morning anchor, I abandoned any pretense of objectivity and argued with them.

Following is an edited transcript of the conversation.

WNHH: I’m going to play devil’s advocate here. We have a referendum question on the ballot: ​“Shall the constitution of the state be amended to permit the General Assembly” — i.e. Josh — ​“to allow each voter to vote by absentee ballot?” Do you two support that? 

Karimah Mickens: Yes, I do. I believe that everyone should have access to the ballot, removing all barriers. We need to be thoughtful in whatever we do. I recognize that it will come with some additional work, but I think it’s the cost of doing business for folks to have access to the ballot. I 100 percent support that.

WNHH: How about you, Josh?

Joshua Elliott: We’re decades behind on early voting. And we took a long time to get early voting. These were ballot questions in 2014 that failed. We had them on the ballot, and people voted no [on] both. They didn’t really understand the language. But of course, going through the pandemic, a lot of people went through this process of having these absentee ballots and seeing how easy it is.

The way I talk about this with people is: You want or conceive of government needing to be efficient and to be more like business. What are we doing as people who are elected to reach out to constituents to make it easier for them and not harder for them? That’s all this is. You don’t have to vote by absentee. All we’re saying is that you won’t need an excuse to request an absentee ballot. So today, it does require for you to request one.

There are a pretty wide swath of people that just feel as though voting means going on that Tuesday to vote in that place. And I think that is totally fine. No one is trying to undo that. And we should have an opt-out system, simply saying that if you are a resident of Connecticut, you are registered to vote, you should get your ballot, and it should be as easy as humanly possible.

WNHH: I love early voting. I love everything to make it easy for people to vote. As a reporter, I’ve been concerned about abuse of absentee ballots.

So in Bridgeport we had in 2019 an official of the city and others getting buckets of absentee ballots and bringing them back themselves, which obviously is illegal. And then the state knew it. They had video evidence, and it took them four years to give a slap on the wrist that was so minor that that same person did it again, and we had to have four elections in the mayoral race in 2023 because they were cheating so much.

I’m not echoing what people say most [about] election frauds. I know the real numbers are 0.0001 percent of any fraud. So I know fraud is not a big issue. But in my own reporting, I know that even when people haven’t gotten in trouble, that a lot of old people, when people come and have them fill out the absentee ballot, they’re sitting right there and telling them how to vote. They don’t even know what they’re voting for. So my concern is: Do we have even the capacity in Connecticut, based on what happened in Bridgeport, to prevent fraud?

Mickens: Of course fraud can exist. And to my understanding, it’s minimal. From what I see, the process builds in stopgaps. There are ways that we track the ballot. It’s safe. There are checks and balances. When a ballot goes out, they have unique identifiers. There are things that go out so that you know how that ballot comes back in, and how it comes back.

A person can come in and request an application. You can have a family member request the application, but you can’t request the ballot. The ballot has to go to the voter. So the voter, they vote, they select who they want to vote for. You can either mail it, you can put it in one of our secure drop boxes, or you can drop it off in the town clerk’s or city clerk’s office.

When you do that, we take that identifier and we log it, and we secure it and put it in a safe space. So the ballots are secure. If you are someone that’s a caregiver, and you are dropping it off for someone, that’s one of the questions we ask when you come. ​“Is this your ballot? If it’s not your ballot, then we need to see your identification, and you need to sign in.”

WNHH: I have to say that if you’re the person checking, I do trust this. I’ll vote for it. I’m concerned about how you could have hundreds and hundreds of fraudulent ballots, that it happens again and again in one city and the state can’t stop it.

Some people would say: They cheat anyway. There’s always ways of cheating. So is part of what you’re saying, Karimah, that given that there’s such a tiny amount of fraud, that the benefit is outweighed by so many more people who can vote? And based on your own experience, you have faith that you know you can run a good shop and make it clean, so that the benefits to society of so many more people being able to vote outweighs a tiny, insignificant, small number of people that might be fraudulent?

Mickens: Well, for a person who doesn’t believe in it, you said it well. And as we look at it in a more broad way, I’m sure there’ll be other things that we can do to make people feel more safe and secure. I think it’s the right thing to do, and if there are gaps, we need to fix it for the greater good.

WNHH: What do we gain as a society by letting more people vote more easily? Why is this important?

Mickens: I think having people connected to their democratic government is really important. People can feel like they have ownership over what happens, not only with the laws in their state, but also what’s happening with the potholes in the road in front of them.

WNHH: Steve Orosco, a Republican running for State Senate, said: Why don’t we just have a national election day instead of having people absentee? Keep the current rules, but just have everyone come on that national election day.

Mickens: It’s easy to say in theory, but I think you have to have options. I get phone calls: I want to show up at the polls, but things happen. They may be caregivers, they may be people with disabilities. There may be all types of things where they would normally show up at the polls, but because life happens, they can’t. I am hearing this new thing where people are wanting to vote earlier, whether it’s going to be via absentee or early voting, because they want to get it out of the way, because they just don’t know what could happen in between that time.

So for me, it’s just providing options to be able to vote. 

WNHH: Josh, why do you want people to vote yes on this ballot?

Elliott: It’s just about having access. It’s that simple.

WNHH: The Connecticut Mirror had an article about state legislators for and against this, and the Republicans don’t seem to be putting up a big opposition to this. The reason they gave [in opposition] had nothing to do with what I just said [about Bridgeport]. They said: ​“Well, we don’t think they did a good job rolling out early voting. So until they show us they can do that, I don’t want to do any more.” I could be myopic, but didn’t it go really well [in the primary]?

Mickens: In Hamden, we were the number one early vote-getting town in the state. I think it was over 1,300 or so. The registrars of voters chose the location, which was Miller Library, a central location, great parking. They sent out reminders to the electors.

Click on the video below to watch the full discussion with Karimah Mickens and Joshua Elliott on WNHH FM’s​“Dateline New Haven.” (Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of​“Dateline New Haven.”)