In Connecticut, Early Voting is a Constitutional Issue

[Image courtesy of american-architecture]

The continuing effort to establish early voting in Connecticut is generating resistance on the basis that it requires an amendment to the state constitution. CT News Junkie has the story:

Despite constitutional concerns, lawmakers advanced a bill Monday that establishes a pilot program for municipalities to test early voting in this year’s town elections.

Over the past few years, the legislature has jumped through considerable hoops in an effort to broaden its authority over the state’s voting system. That’s because the state constitution is unusually specific when it comes to the administration of statewide and federal elections.

For the second consecutive year, lawmakers are mulling a constitutional amendment that could give them more leeway to enact policies concerning no-excuse absentee ballots and early voting.

The bill that the Planning and Development Committee passed on a 12-6 vote Monday would allow an early voting test run in a handful of municipalities during their town elections scheduled for November of this year.

Proponents of the bill argue it does not run afoul of the state constitution, which has little to say with regard to town elections.

Opponents’ constitutional concerns are based in part on an informal 2009 attorney general opinion, which reads the constitution to require that votes be cast “at” the election. Based in part on this opinion, legislators moved forward with plans to amend the constitution to allow early voting:

Blumenthal’s opinion likely helped set in motion the ongoing process of amending the state’s constitution, which requires that the General Assembly pass a resolution two years in a row by a simple majority, or once by a three-fifths majority, to put it on the ballot for voters.

Both chambers passed the bill last year. This year’s resolution passed the House but still needs to clear the Senate before going on the ballot in 2014.

In the meantime, a group of New Haven lawmakers are seeking to run a pilot of early voting in town elections – and now the question is whether the 2009 opinion would present the same obstacles to that proposal. Secretary of State Denise Merrill and legislators are deferring to the AG and the courts on that question, but the bill’s proponent is hopeful that the pilot will be able to move forward:

Rep. Roland Lemar, a New Haven Democrat who co-sponsored the legislation, said he agreed that the constitution barred the state from enacting early voting for statewide elections, but did not see it as prohibiting towns from doing it.

“In the fact that they left that part of it silent, I think it provides great authority for municipalities to consider early voting,” he said.

At the end of the day, Lemar said he was looking to increase voter turnout during municipal voting season, an election cycle that doesn’t benefit from the increased attention focused on the process during federal and state election years.

This story is a helpful reminder that election policy is founded on – and bounded by – the laws that give election officials the authority to do their jobs. Connecticut’s continued efforts to make changes to its election process, while respecting state law, is a story worth watching for the foreseeable future.