Posted on September 26, 2024
From the Desk of Rep. Mastrofrancesco:
Safeguarding the integrity of our elections should be a top priority. But as the ranking member of the Government, Administration, and Elections Committee, I am deeply concerned about the consequences of voters approving “no excuse” absentee voting.
This November, voters will be asked to approve a ballot measure allowing it. The question is: “Shall the Constitution of the State be amended to permit the General Assembly to allow each voter to vote by absentee ballot?”
But this vague, overly broad question fails to inform voters clearly, as it does not even mention “no excuse” voting by name. This ambiguity could allow lawmakers to expand voting policies without public input, such as introducing the automatic mailing of absentee ballots, which is a true threat to the integrity of our elections.
Allowing “no excuse” absentee voting undermines election integrity and opens the door to fraud, eroding public trust (what is left of it) in our electoral process. Local incidents in Connecticut, including stuffed ballot boxes in Bridgeport and forged signatures in Stamford, show the system is already vulnerable. It begs the question: why on Earth does the Democrat majority want to implement a new system when the state has yet to control bad actors in the current system?
During the 2020 election, about 184,000 absentee ballot applications were deemed undeliverable. That’s almost 8% of Connecticut’s 2.33 million active voters, enough to swing tight races. In Southington, a race was decided by just one vote in 2022. Such slim margins show the importance of maintaining election security.
Over 50,000 absentee ballots that were sent out were never returned in 2020. Were they lost, stolen, or mishandled? We will never know, but this raises serious concerns about expanding absentee voting. My colleagues and I have made it clear that the expanded use of mail-in ballots and no excuse absentee ballots without the necessary checks for integrity is ripe for fraud.
Despite offering commonsense solutions and legislation to secure the process, such as requiring a photo ID to cast a ballot and verifying signatures on ballots, the Democrat majority in the House and Senate continue to block our proposals on party lines. Should this ballot question pass, are voters supposed to now believe the Democrats, who have blocked these measures for years, will now require signature verification and photo ID?
And voters need to know, if they approve this measure, they will not control the form that “no excuse” voting takes. That decision will be made by the Democrat majority, not the public. The outcome? Automatic mailing of absentee ballots to every registered voter (whether they are eligible or not), which again is ripe for fraud. The process of voting is far too important to be conducted by mail, especially when the system has shown to have serious flaws.
We have already seen this pattern with Early Voting. A vague question led to 14 days of Early Voting, a burden on municipalities for minimal turnout—less than 1% during the August primaries. Even Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas admitted the state “may have too many days of early voting.”
Republicans proposed a reasonable three-day window, balancing voter access with the practical concerns of running elections, but the democrats passed a costlier 14 days and we were shut out of the process of crafting the legislation, effectively being told, “take it or leave it.”
While I believe in making voting accessible, it should never come at the expense of fairness, security, and public confidence. Connecticut voters should carefully scrutinize this proposal and consider its real-world impact on our election system.
– State Representative Gale Mastrofrancesco, Ranking Member of the Government, Administration, and Elections Committee, R-80th District, Wolcott & Southington