On Nov. 4, voters
will be asked to consider an amendment to the Connecticut Constitution.
Question 1 asks: "Shall the Constitution of the State
be amended to remove restrictions concerning absentee ballots and to permit a
person to vote without appearing at a polling place on the day of an
election?"
Many voters might
say, “That sounds like a reasonable idea.”
But before you
vote “Yes”, ask yourselves what the constitutional change will bring.
Will it mean
online voting? Telephone voting? Month-long voting? Maybe all of
the above?
Your guess is as
good as mine. No one knows what the end game will be. That’s why this
question is not being straight with the voters. The truth is, you are being
asked to change the state constitution for some unknown future changes to
election law.
Changing the
Connecticut Constitution is no small matter. We are, after all, The
Constitution State. It's wrong and potentially dangerous to do away with
constitutional restrictions and simply leave it up to a General Assembly
controlled by one party to decide how voting should happen. This
constitutional change would enable Democrats to make dramatic changes to our
electoral system because they have a majority in the legislature.
No matter what
your political affiliation, most of us can agree that access to the ballot
should readily and easily available. If the goal of Democrats is early voting
or no-excuse absentee balloting, they should have put those proposals in a
specific constitutional amendment and let voters decide. The language of the
question should be clear as a bell, but it isn’t. Voters should know what
the consequences of their “Yes” vote will be, but they have no idea.
Language is
important. At least our predecessors thought so. They felt it necessary
to put election law in our state constitution.
A “Yes” vote
on Nov. 4 will open the door to the unknown. It opens the door to a lot
of things without letting the public know where are going. A “Yes” vote,
in my opinion, represents a carte blanche for your state legislature to change
voting laws going forward.
So, voters, do
you trust them to make all the right moves at the State Capitol? If not,
please join me in voting “No” on Nov. 4.
