HARTFORD, CT – Leaders from the Senate Republicans and the ranking members of the Judiciary Committee held a news conference to address what they call insecurities in Connecticut’s voting system.
Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Torrington, and Judiciary Committee ranking members Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Southington, and Rep. Gale Mastrofrancesco, R-Southington, spoke about the need to improve Connecticut’s voting system, in particular the absentee ballot system, in light of the allegations of voter fraud and other irregularities that led to multiple re-votes in the Bridgeport mayoral election over the last six months.
“We had somebody just this past September blatantly caught on video violating the election laws,” Harding said, referring to a video that showed more than one person stuffing multiple ballots into voting drop boxes across Bridgeport, “And this is not just me saying this. This is not just my colleagues saying this. This is a nonpartisan judge in the Superior Court in Connecticut taking unprecedented action to order a brand new election.They canceled a primary vote based upon the fact that someone openly on camera was breaking the voter laws and undermining confidence in the integrity here in our election system.”
Sampson offered several proposals that they said would help to secure elections in the future:
- Address Voter Rolls: Republicans proposed more regular auditing of voter registration, including more audits of absentee- and same day-voter registration. They would change current law to require the secretary of the state to conduct voter audits annually.
- Prohibit mailing of unsolicited absentee ballot applications: Another concern that Republicans raised is the practice of campaigns offering absentee ballot applications to large numbers of voters. They noted that recent changes in state law had expanded absentee voting from a somewhat rare practice to an increasingly common one, and partially blamed unsolicited absentee ballot applications.
“Our absentee ballot system is there to accommodate people who cannot vote in person. It is not to create a mail-in voting system with holes in it,” Sampson said.
- Impose stricter security on voting process: In addition to reducing the amount of absentee ballots, Republicans called for the legislature to introduce a signature verification system and voter ID requirements for residents submitting absentee ballots They pointed to these systems that are in place in other states that they said added additional security to the voting process.
- Introduce a one-year mandatory prison sentence for anyone found guilty of participating in election fraud: Sampson lamented that there are no real consequences for people caught committing voter fraud.
“We’ve had numerous cases of election fraud almost exclusively with absentee ballots and almost exclusively in our major cities over the last three decades,” Sampson said. “And some people have gotten fined, no question about it. But to my knowledge, no one has ever served a day in prison. Or they had a very significant fine. We need a real deterrent.”
Mastrofrancesco echoed many of Sampson’s arguments.
“The problem here with this bill that we passed out of committee, as we say, is there’s some decent things in her. But [the bill] really is not going to address the problem and deter people from interfering in our elections or manipulating our absentee ballots. Everything in here really is to address the issues after the fact,” she said.
Senate Democrats responded to the proposals Monday afternoon, accusing Republicans of attempting to disenfranchise voters across the state.
Sen. Mae Flexer, a Killingly Democrat and co-chair of the Government Administration and Elections Committee, said Republicans have been promoting ways to make it more difficult for people to vote.
“Long before 2023, Connecticut Republicans have consistently proposed measure after measure that would make it harder for people to vote,” Flexer said. “Now, instead of having thoughtful conversations about how to make our elections better and having a meaningful dialogue about what has happened in Bridgeport, they insist on using the situation there as an excuse to try and disenfranchise Connecticut voters by taking away ballot boxes and absentee ballots.
“Meanwhile, we have a number of good, bipartisan, election-reform bills that were voted out of the GAE Committee,” Flexer continued. “These measures actually look at the details and structure of our election system and make meaningful changes to stop those bad actors who do disenfranchise some voters, without disenfranchising all 2.1 million Connecticut voters.”
For several years Republicans have been claiming voter fraud is widespread, but in Connecticut the number of cases is low. Prior to the allegations of voter fraud in Bridgeport, the last high-profile case of voter fraud was former Democratic City Committee chair John Mallozzi, who was found guilty of second-degree forgery and making false statements in connection with a local election in 2015. Mallozzi was convicted of signing and submitting dozens of absentee ballots in the names of voters who were unaware of his actions. He was sentenced to two years probation and a $35,000 fine.
The Heritage Foundation has a database of voting violations and offers information on 27 incidents in Connecticut here, of which 26 were adjudicated with various fines, community services requirements, and house arrest. The latest case, pertaining to the Bridgeport election that was just completed after several re-votes, is the only on the list not to have been adjudicated.
