Letter: Connecticut GOP Wants Low Voter Turnout

The letter Chuck Pyne wrote in response to Quinn Weber’s piece on early voting was insulting, infuriating, and disrespectful. It was also predictable, considering the typical conservative antipathy towards people being able to vote.

Woodbridge is a small town, with 8,990 people per the last census. I know that in my own small town, I very rarely have to wait longer than a few minutes to vote. However, that is not the case in many municipalities across the state, as the stories over the past decade from Bridgeport and New Haven make clear. Average people cannot sustain an hours – plural – long wait. They have work. They have kids. They have things that can not be put off. 

The problems are worse across the nation. Closed polling stations have led to extreme lines and depressed voter turnout in many areas, almost always initiated as cost saving” measures by Republicans. The fact that most affected communities are majority-minority that tend to vote Democrat is not an accident.

Mr. Pyne continually talks about the importance of voting as a sacred duty, but he and those he supports are only interested in picking their voters. They want a depressed turnout. They want poor people to get frustrated and stay home. They want people to be scared of the statistically irrelevant specter of voter fraud.” Connecticut Republicans are afraid of becoming increasingly irrelevant, and if I shared many of their cynical views of my fellow human, I would be too.

There is one thing that the gentleman from Woodbridge is right on: voting is critically important. In fact, it’s so important that, with Election Day not being a holiday, the increased demands of Americans’ time, and improvements in technology, voting should be easier for everyone. As Senator Logan’s campaign manager, it would be virtually impossible for Mr. Pyne to not be aware that high turnout is typically bad news for his party. As a prominent conservative likes to say, facts don’t care about his feelings.

The goal of any person without a stake in the matter should be 100% turnout, from the working poor in major cities to senior citizens who are no longer ambulatory. Everyone, regardless of demographics should be allowed to vote with as much ease as possible. It’s sad that the Republican Party is opposed to such a fundamental right.

The writer lives in Seymour.

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