FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, March 15, 2023

SEN. FLEXER, REP. BLUMENTHAL LAUD COMMITTEE PASSAGE OF EARLY VOTING BILL, OTHER PRO-DEMOCRACY LEGISLATION

HARTFORD – State Senator Mae Flexer and state Representative Matt Blumenthal (D-Stamford), who are the Co-Chairs of the Government Administration and Elections Committee, today welcomed committee passage of several important bills for the expansion and continuation of democracy in Connecticut, including bills to allow for early voting, no-excuse absentee voting, and to “remove or replace” faithless presidential electors who may attempt to subvert the presidential electoral ballot process.

The bills voted out of the GAE Committee today include:

· Senate Bill 1064, “An Act Concerning the Implementation of Early Voting.” Similar early voting bills include House Bill 5004 and Senate Bill 1057.

· Senate Joint Resolution 29 and House Joint Resolution 1, “Approving an Amendment to the State Constitution to Allow No-Excuse Absentee Voting”

· House Bill 6872, “An Act Concerning Faithless Presidential Electors and Authorizing Mandamus Actions Related to the Certification or Declaration of Election Results”

“Our early voting bills – where legislators are seeking voting up to 14 days before an election – will allow Connecticut residents to catch up with the rest of the country, most all of which already has early voting laws in place, including the Republican strongholds of Texas, Florida Arizona, Wyoming, West Virginia and North Dakota,” Sen. Flexer said. “This isn’t a Democrat or a Republican issue. This is a democracy and a voter participation issue. And it’s one that is long, long overdue to be implemented in our state.”

“Voting is a basic right in our democracy, and simplifying it for all eligible individuals is crucial,” Rep. Blumenthal said. “No-excuse absentee voting is a practical change that boosts ballot access and validates every vote.”

If passed by the House and Senate, the no-excuse absentee voting bills would appear on the November 5, 2024, ballot in Connecticut as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment (the early voting bill just went through a similar process last fall, and Connecticut voters approved it by a 3:2 margin).

House Bill 6872 would nullify the vote of, and remove, replace, and impose certain penalties on, so-called “faithless presidential electors,” those electors who had pledged to cast a state’s

electoral college ballot for a particular president and vice-president, but who then either votes for another person for one or both offices or who abstains from voting altogether.

The District of Columbia and over 30 states already have laws on the books requiring electors to vote faithfully for their party’s winning candidate. About 20 states also have laws to replace faithless electors or penalize them for violating their pledge. And in 2020 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld two state laws imposing sanctions on faithless electors—in both cases because the Constitution authorizes states to appoint electors “in such a manner as the legislature . . . may direct.”

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