In 2024 Connecticut voters overwhelmingly approved Question 1, a constitutional amendment removing the requirement that voters needed an excuse to vote by absentee ballot. With that vote, Connecticut joined 37 other states that allow absentee voting for all.
And the results were decisive. It was a clear directive from the people of this state to the Legislature: modernize our elections and give voters more flexibility to cast their ballots from home.
Yet as lawmakers move to implement what voters already approved, false claims about fraud, untethered from evidence are resurfacing. These claims deserve a careful, fact-based response,especially when they risk delaying or undermining the will of the people.
Election fraud of any kind is extremely uncommon in the United States, and is a felony in most states. Multiple studies, bipartisan election officials, and court rulings across the country have found fraud rates measured not in percentages, but in fractions of a fraction of a percent.
The National Vote at Home Institute (NVAHI) has studied state voting systems, including those where every active voter is automatically delivered a ballot to their doorstep. Greater access to mail ballots increases voter participation across all demographic groups, with no partisan advantage. Utah, Colorado, and Oregon, all universal Vote at Home states, consistently lead the nation in voter participation.
Other states with no-excuse absentee voting have also seen their participation rates go up. Voting by mail is good for all voters but especially for working families, voters with childcare and eldercare responsibilities, seniors, disabled voters, and young people.
In a properly designed voting system, mail ballots are not postcards floating freely through the system. They are part of a tightly controlled, multi-step process designed to protect ballot secrecy and prevent tampering. In fact, mail ballots are among the safest and most secure voting methods available: each ballot carries a unique barcode, ballot delivery can be tracked online by voters, and “curing” ensures small mistakes don’t silence voters’ voices.
Those who charge that mail ballots are not secure undermine confidence in elections, without proof, and discourage participation, erode trust, and weaken the very foundations of self-government.
If mail voting were truly vulnerable to widespread fraud, it would show up in audits, recounts, prosecutions, or overturned elections. It hasn’t. Those who actually run elections, Republican and Democratic officials alike, have repeatedly affirmed that mail voting is safe, secure, and reliable.
Mail ballots are secure. Our democracy is stronger when we say so. clearly, confidently, and without apology. Implementing a robust and efficient system, with strong safeguards and transparent processes, honors both the Constitution and our own common sense.
Connecticut voters were clear in 2024: They want the freedom to choose how they vote. Now it’s time for the legislature to honor the people’s will.
By CT 50501, CT Citizen Action Group (CCAG), CT League of Conservation Voters, CT River Huddle Indivisible, CT Shoreline Indivisible, Democracy First, Greater Westville Indivisible, Indivisible CT, Indivisible Greenwich, Indivisible North Central CT, Indivisible Small and Mighty (Somers), IndivisibleCT4, Make Voting Easy CT (Glastonbury), National Vote at Home Institute, Orange CT Indivisible, ReSisters (Westport), Quiet Corner Indivisible-CT, Quiet Corner Shouts, REBS (Redding, Easton, Bethel), Sand in Their Gears (West Hartford), Saving Democracy (NW Corner), Stamford Indivisible, TACT Indivisible-Glastonbury (Take Action CT)