Connecticut’s early voting faces scrutiny amid low turnout

(The Center Square) — Connecticut Republicans are calling for changes to the early voting law after the state’s top election official suggested that the weeklong voting period should be shortened amid lackluster turnout.

“For many months, Connecticut Republicans raised repeated concerns over the burden that many days of early voting would place on town budgets statewide,” Senate Republican Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, and other GOP lawmakers said in a statement calling for reforms to the system. “Simply put, it’s a waste of taxpayer money which puts unnecessary heavy burdens on our hard-working local election officials.”

The demands follow comments by Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas, who suggested that Connecticut lawmakers should consider scaling back the number of early voting days following low turnout ahead of last Tuesday’s state primary.

“We may have too many days of early voting,” Thomas, a Democrat, told Connecticut Public Radio last week. “In November, we’ll learn more things that we can bring to the next legislative session.”

The state elections office released data from early voting from Aug. 5-11, showing paltry turnout during the recent state primary, with only 8,854 voters casting ballots during the weeklong period. That’s less than 1% of the state’s registered Democrat and Republican voters. Some towns registered only one voter during the weeklong period, according to the data.

“Republicans warned that this would pose a significant unfunded mandate on towns which would be passed on to residents in the form of higher taxes,” the GOP lawmakers said. “Now that the state’s top Democrat elections official has expressed these views, we as lawmakers must fix this state law.”

Municipal leaders have complained of limited resources from the state and long hours to oversee state-mandated early voting locations, with few residents showing up to vote. Thomas asked the Legislature to approve $7 million last February to cover municipal costs for early voting, education campaigns, fraud prevention and general voter information. Lawmakers didn’t approve the funding request.

Connecticut’s foray into early voting began in March’s presidential primary under a new state law that took effect this year. The law allowed seven days of early voting before this August’s primary and 14 days before the general election in November. Voters approved the changes in the 2022 elections, making Connecticut one of the last states in the nation to authorize early voting.

Under the law, Connecticut cities and towns must designate at least one early voting location, and communities with more than 20,000 residents could establish more sites. Early voting sites must be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., except the last Tuesday and Thursday before elections, when sites would be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Republicans, many of whom voted against the measure, argued local governments lack the resources to implement early voting, such as technology upgrades and paying poll workers.