Melissa Bailey Photo
James: The more voters, the better.
New Haveners may get to cast ballots two weeks ahead of the election this fall, if city politicians and lawmakers get their way at the state Capitol.
That’s because the city’s Democratic Town Committee (DTC) and state lawmakers are pushing for a bill that would allow New Haven to pilot early voting in the November general election.
DTC Chair Jackie James and Vice-Chair Vinnie Mauro (pictured above) announced their support for the proposal at a DTC meeting Wednesday at 200 Orange St. The bill, S.B. 729, would allow a few cities to open up polls as early as two weeks before the election.
James testified at the Capitol in favor of the bill at a public hearing on March 18. She said early voting would boost voter turnout — a main focus of her new term as DTC chair.
State law allows voting only on election day. The only exception is for those who are unable to make it on election day; they are permitted to “mail” in absentee ballots. (In New Haven, they sometimes receive help in that effort.)
Mauro said Connecticut needs to catch up with modern times: 32 states now allow some form of early voting,according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The practice helps avoid voter suppression and accommodates voters’ increasingly hectic schedules of work, commuting and childcare, Mauro argued.
“It’s an issue around which the time has come,” he said.
New Haven lawmakers are taking the lead in the quest for early voting this year: S.B. 729 is co-authored by state Rep. Toni Walker and state Sen. Toni Harp, and state Rep. Roland Lemar has been the main advocate pushing for its passage.
“We’ve got such an antiquated system in Connecticut where we force people to show up on a Tuesday” regardless of whether they have to pick up kids from daycare, commute far away to work, or are juggling two or three jobs, Lemar said.
Early voting “would provide an opportunity for New Haven residents to get to the polls and cast their votes earlier, and hopefully greater volume.”
So far, the official bill is still in concept form and contains little detail. Lemar said he is working on a more detailed form of the bill that would allow up to 10 cities and towns to try out early voting this fall. He said there isn’t enough time to try out the idea for New Haven’s Sept. 10 primary, but he hopes to get a pilot program going by the general election in November.
One major factor is cost: State law requires five poll workers at each poll.
Lemar said while opening polls in all 30 wards for two weeks would be costly, the city could open a few across the city, each of them available to any voter who chooses.
State Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, also of New Haven, said he supports the idea.
“I certainly am supportive of early voting,” Looney said. “It makes sense to have at least a few polling places open in advance of the election — to cast as wide a net as possible” to boost voter turnout.
Lemar said Secretary of State Denise Merrill has been helping New Haven try to work out the details, such as how to stock 30 different aldermanic ballots at a single polling place.
Merrill, a vocal proponent of early voting, threw her support behind S.B. 729 at the March 18 hearing.
“I have said many times before that I think we in Connecticut need to modernize our elections and provide more voting options that accommodate the busy hectic lives of our voters,” she told the committee.
Merrill has also proposed allowing early voting in state elections. That change would require a constitutional amendment. Since the date for municipal elections is not specified in the constitution, supporters believe the change could be made without a constitutional amendment.