Reaction to Legislative Passage of Early Voting Resolution, H.J. 59

HARTFORD – The Connecticut Senate today voted to approve H.J. 59, a legislative resolution which would put to voters the question of whether to amend Connecticut’s Constitution to allow early voting in the state. With today’s action in the Senate, the question of early voting will be on the 2022 general election ballot.

“Early voting is important for racial justice and should be part of any functioning modern democracy. Voters deserve the chance to choose whether Connecticut should adopt early voting, and now they’ll get to decide in 2022. By giving more people access to the ballot box, early voting would strengthen the democratic process. Limitations on early voting disproportionately hurt voters of color, people with little job flexibility, people lacking transportation, people lacking childcare, people with disabilities, voters without identification, and voters who lack language access. We applaud the legislature’s passage of this resolution and look forward to educating voters about the need for early voting in 2022,” said ACLU of Connecticut executive director David McGuire.

Connecticut is one of six states that does not have some form of early voting.

Creating early voting in Connecticut would require amending the state’s constitution to overturn an existing ban on early voting. To create that amendment, voters would need to vote for it at the ballot box. In 2019, the legislature passed a bill to put the question of early voting before voters. Because the bill didn’t pass with a supermajority in both chambers, it required passage by a simple majority during the 2021 legislative session in order to put the question before voters on the 2022 ballot.

For an explanation of the early voting resolution’s path toward the ballot: https://www.acluct.org/en/news/early-voting-will-get-another-chance-2021-heres-how