“Shall the Constitution of the State be amended to permit the General Assembly to provide for early voting?”
If 75% of the State Senate voted “Yes” to House Joint Resolution 161 (HJ 161) you’d be seeing the above question alongside the options “Yes” or “No” on your 2020 ballot.
There doesn’t seem to be anything too controversial about allowing for early voting. The benefits to it couldn’t be clearer, early voting frees you up to spend your second Tuesday in November doing whatever it is you need to do that day and not adding to the stress of figuring out how to balance going to your polling place on a workday between all of your other responsibilities.
Two-thirds of states around the country have some form of early voting already and they have figured out how to make the costs work so that having early voting wouldn’t be prohibitive for towns. It also gives election monitors ample time to correctly carry out an election instead of being overwhelmed by the steady stream of voters and prevent people from accidentally voting in the wrong district, as was the case in both Stratford and Hamden last year.
These elections are by the people and for the people, so having this archaic barrier to voting makes no sense.
That is why I struggle to understand why Naugatuck Valley area State Representatives Jason Perillo, Ben McGorty, Rosa Rebimbas, and David Labriola all voted against HJ 161.
My disappointed continued when State Senators Kevin Kelly, George Logan, and Eric Berthel voted “No” on the resolution so that we the people can decide for ourselves how we want our elections run.
Frankly, it is a farce to say that absentee voting equals early voting as Senator Logan has proclaimed. Absentee voting has a strict set of provisions that subject you to a maximum $2,000 civil penalty if you’re found to violate said provisions, the only provisions you need to vote early as they do in other states is to be registered to vote and have a polling place be open.
It is an abdication of good judgment for all the above-mentioned legislators, especially the State Senators, to not give the people a chance to weigh in when confronted with the fact that the overwhelming majority of State Representatives in the General Assembly voted to give the people a voice.
I’d suggest to the reader keeping all of that in mind on when you see your 2020 ballot.
Quinn A. Weber
The writer is President of the Naugatuck Valley Young Democrats
