Markeshia Ricks Photo
Quickmire mades the case at Lyric Hall.
A statewide advocate for making voting easier came to town to pitch people on voting “yes” on a ballot question on Election Day, while some Republicans warned against efforts to eliminate Election Day as we know it.
Cheri Quickmire (pictured), executive director of Common Cause in Connecticut, made the pitch at ballot forum held at Westville’s Lyric Hall Tuesday evening. She advocated voting yes on Question 1 on the Nov. 2 ballot, which would amend the state constitution to enable everyone — not just people with an excuse — to mail in their votes ahead of Election Day.
Quickmire said that would put the state closer to joining more than 30 other states that allow early voting and nearly 30 that have more liberal absentee ballot processes. For instance, all Oregon voters have the option of voting by absentee ballot and most of them do. Quickmire said there are even several Southern states that have more liberal absentee voting rules than Connecticut.
People in Connecticut can currently vote by absentee ballot under only two circumstances — being ill and out of town. There are no specific allowances for commuters, caregivers, or workers who otherwise can’t get to the polls because of other obligations, she said.
Quickmire said people sometimes lie to obtain an absentee ballot. A constitutional amendment would eliminate the need to fib, she said. In fact, if the amendment passes, lawmakers could make it so that people could arrange to vote when it is convenient for them if the state adopts early voting procedures.
Absentee ballot fraud has been a big issue in New Haven in recent years. (Read about that here, here, and here.) One objection to Question 1 would be that it could expand the opportunities for vote-pullers to pressure voters in private to select their candidate, or even forge their ballots, which they can’t do when voters come to the polls.
Democratic State Sen. Gary Holder-Winfield said he doesn’t buy that reducing restrictions would increase voter fraud. “There are states that have been doing this for a very long time with no increase in voter fraud,” he said.
Republican Town Chair Richter Elser (who did not attend the forum) said he too is unconcerned about increased fraud. He noted that “everything seems to work fine” in early-voting mail-in states like Oregon. He worries more about opportunities for fraud under the current law allowing same-day voter registration on Election Day, he said. “We depend on older, retired individuals who are putting in very long hours and have very good intentions” to run the polls. Question #1’s passage would offer a better alternative for enabling more people to vote, he said. “In general, anything that increases participation is good,” Elser said.
The state’s Republican Party chairman, Jerry Labriola, said in an interview that he sees no reason to “tinker with the Constitution” in this case.
“The best way to ensure open and fair elections is to have an election day with polling places. It ensures the proper checks and balances. It’s extraordinarily easy to register to vote and vote during a 14-hour election day,” Labriola said. “It takes a few minutes. We allow fairly easy absentee ballots already.”
Labriola noted that “certainly New Haven, Bridgeport and Hartford have very dubious records regarding the enforcement of election laws,” Labriola observed. He said he believes Democrats have an “ulterior motive” with this amendment: “to eliminate the traditional election day as we know it. The Democrats believe that by changing the system, they will make one-party Democrat rule permanent.”
Republican State. Sen. Kevin Witkos elaborated on Labriola’s point: He said that Republicans fear that once the amendment removes election law from the constitution, that opens the door for the Democratic-controlled legislature to make other changes to the process.
Witkos and Labriola might be surprised at what the expected next president of the State Senate, New Haven’s Martin Looney, had to say on the subject in the interview.
He said he supports the ballot question because he’d like to see more early voting made possible in Connecticut — but not by mail. Rather he’d like to see early-voting polling stations set up. He is reluctant to universalize absentee ballots.
Looney called the secret-ballot voting booth “sacrosanct”: “What’s to prevent an anti-union employer from saying to employees, ‘Show me your ballot’?”
Looney also said he would never want to do away with Election Day: “The idea of an election day and a communal experience of people going out to vote is of critical importance. We have so few communal activities. Our society is so fragmented. People are isolated. Going to a polling place is an important communal activity. I want that to continue.” Only Oregon has moved to a completely mailed-in advance-voting system, he noted. “I’m totally opposed to that idea.”
A Local Question
Another ballot measure that New Haven residents should be on the look out for: a question that authorizes the Board of Alders to apply for state money under the City and Town Development Act.
Voters are asked to consider the question every five years, as a check and balance on the city’s authority. The Board of Alders actually almost missed the deadline to get the measure on the ballot, noted Aaron Goode (pictured) of the New Haven Votes Coalition. (Click here for more information on the question.)