H.B. 5001: An Act Concerning Absentee Voting for All and Various Other Reforms to the Administration of Elections

For years, the ACLU of CT has been committed to expanding and protecting access to the ballot in Connecticut, working to remove the systemic barriers that continue to block full participation in our democracy. That looks like investing in the easiest and most convenient ways to access a ballot like no-excuse absentee voting, which is also known as mail-in voting. H.B. 5001 would remove restrictions on who may vote absentee and allows all voters in Connecticut to vote absentee without an excuse.

From the start of the 2026 session, we knew how imperative it was for legislators to implement no-excuse absentee voting (NEAV) and fulfill the clear mandate delivered by voters in the 2024 election when a majority of voters supported modernizing our voting system through expanded absentee voting.

In May 2026, this bill was signed into law, becoming Public Act 26-42. To learn more about what this new law does for Connecticut voters, read our policy analysis and fact sheet here.

Now that the law has passed, all Connecticut voters are eligible to request a mail-in ballot, or absentee ballot, without having to provide an excuse to be approved for one. All you have to do is request a ballot from the Secretary of the State's website.

In addition to hosting advocacy days and lobbying legislators about every version of this bill, our policy team also provided written and oral testimony on this bill as it moved through the House. Find our policy counsel's, Jess Zaccagnino, testimony here.

You can also find the testimony toolkit that we shared with partners and advocates during session here.