Early voting starts this month

#MiddleburyCT #EarlyVoting

By MARJORIE NEEDHAM

Middlebury’s Republican Registrar of Voters, Nancy Robison, holds open the flap through which early voters will deposit their ballot envelopes. Connecticut’s first-ever early voting starts March 26, 2024. (Marjorie Needham photo)

Connecticut voters planning to cast ballots in the presidential preference primaries on April 2, 2024, will be the first voters with the opportunity to vote early since enactment of Connecticut’s Early Voting Act. They will be able to cast their ballots on four days, Tuesday, March 26; Wednesday, March 27; Thursday, March 28 and Saturday, March 30, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. March 29 is Good Friday, a state holiday.

We asked Republican Registrar of Voters Nancy Robison to explain how the town planned to handle the early voting. She said, “It’s a work in progress.” Final details are still being worked out but plans thus far are to have early voting in the assessor’s office at town hall. Cardboard trifolds set up on the conference table there will provide privacy for voters filling out their ballots. They will place their completed ballots in envelopes and then place the envelopes in the steel ballot container shown in the photo.

Before they can vote, however, they will need to confirm they are registered in the party whose primary ballot they are requesting. They will confirm their registration with the registrar (or the town clerk if the registrar is unavailable) and then be given a ballot and an envelope for the completed ballot. Completed ballots will be stored in a secure location at the end of each day of the early voting period.

The town is required to provide early voting for different times depending on the type of election. For general elections, early voting will start 15 days before, go for 14 days and end two days before. For primary elections, early voting will start eight days before, go for seven days and end two days before. For the current presidential preference primary, early voting starts five days before, lasts for four days, and ends two days before and for special elections, early voting starts five days before, lasts for four days and ends two days before.

For general and primary elections, the early voting period excludes holidays and the duration is not adjusted for the exclusion; for presidential preference primaries and special elections, the duration excludes holidays (and, for this year, March 31, 2024, which is Easter Sunday) and the duration is adjusted so four days of early voting are provided. Because March 29 is Good Friday, early voting will be open Saturday, March 30. Early voting does not apply to town committee primaries or to referenda.

The Early Voting Act passed the House of Representatives and the Senate in May 2023, and Governor Lamont signed the legislation in June 2023. A press release issued at the time said Connecticut was one of the last states in the nation to adopt a system of early voting, leaving Alabama, Mississippi and New Hampshire as the only states that did not allow early voting.
Robison said of early voting, “I just don’t think it’s necessary. Just allow earlier absentee voting.”

This year, absentee voting still requires one of six excuses listed on the application that prevent the applicant from voting in person the day of the election. They are: active military service, absence from their town of residence during voting hours, illness or physical disability, religious beliefs precluding secular activity on election day, or performance of duties as an election official at a different polling place during voting hours.

However, Ballotpedia reported The Connecticut No-Excuse Absentee Voting Amendment will be on the November 5, 2024, ballot. That amendment would allow any voter to request a mail-in ballot after sending in an application and then return the completed ballot by mail or by using a designated deposit site. Should the no-excuse absentee voting amendment be approved in November, it may have an effect on early voting.