In CT, no-excuse absentee voting is on the ballot. Here’s what to know

Connecticut voters will be asked in this year’s election whether the state constitution should be amended to allow all voters to cast their ballots by mail.

Permitting no-excuse absentee voting, as it’s commonly called, would mark an expansion of Connecticut’s voting laws, which currently only allow residents to vote by mail under certain circumstances. But it would put Connecticut in line with many other states that already allow all voters to vote absentee.

The question will appear on ballots this November after the General Assembly approved it during the 2023 legislative session.

Here’s what its passage would mean for voting in Connecticut.

What are Connecticut’s current absentee voting rules?

Connecticut’s constitution currently only allows absentee voting if a voter cannot vote in-person for reasons such as absence from their city or town on Election Day, sickness or physical disability or religious beliefs that prohibit secular activity on Election Day.

Voters can request an absentee ballot online or by completing a paper application and returning it to their town clerk. The ballot is then sent to the voter by mail and can be returned by mail or in-person to the address listed on it.

[RELATED: What are Connecticut’s absentee ballot rules? We’ve outlined them here]

Connecticut expanded its law regarding absentee voting in 2022 to allow out-of-town commuters and caretakers of the disabled or chronically ill to vote by absentee ballot.

In 2020 and 2021, lawmakers temporarily changed the definition of “sickness” in state law to include concern about contracting COVID-19 , in addition to being ill and unable to vote. The move expanded absentee voting to all Connecticut voters for those years’ elections.

What happens if voters approve the referendum?

No-excuse absentee voting wouldn’t automatically take effect.

Rather, passage would grant the General Assembly the ability to pass legislation that would expand mail-in voting to all voters. Lawmakers could choose to raise such a bill during the 2025 legislative session, which begins Jan. 8.

What happens if voters do not approve it?

Failure would mean that the General Assembly couldn’t pass a bill permitting no-excuse absentee voting. However, lawmakers could try putting the question to voters again in the future if they so choose.

The constitutional amendment process typically originates when a legislator raises an amendment proposal in the General Assembly. The proposal then must pass by a three-fourths majority in both the House and the Senate or a simple majority in both chambers in two successive legislative terms.

After gaining final passage in the state legislature, an amendment is then put to voters during the next state election.

Is this the first time Connecticut voters have been asked about no-excuse absentee voting?

No. In 2014, Connecticut ballots included a referendum question that would have permitted lawmakers to implement both no-excuse absentee voting and in-person early voting.

The attempt failed by more than 38,000 votes . Political experts attributed the referendum’s failure, in part, to widespread confusion about the question.

Early voting has since become law in Connecticut after voters approved a ballot question in 2022 and legislators passed a law the following year . Connecticut’s presidential preference primary election earlier this year marked the first time the state employed early voting .

Turnout for early voting during that election was limited .