Connecticut voters on Tuesday approved an amendment to the state's constitution that could make it easier to cast ballots by mail or through drop boxes in future elections.
The amendment lifts long-standing restrictions that only allowed people in the state to vote by absentee ballot if they were going to be out of town, are sick or disabled, or couldn't get to a polling location because of religious restrictions.
Passage of the amendment doesn't automatically mean Connecticut will join the 36 states that allow people to vote by mail without needing an excuse for not going to a polling place in person. But it gives state lawmakers the ability to enact laws allowing more widespread mail-in voting, according to Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas.
State Rep. Matt Blumenthal, a Democrat who co-chairs the General Assembly's Government Administration and Elections Committee, had pitched the amendment as an opportunity to ''free our state from the shackles of a long history of overly restrictive voting laws.''
Thomas, a Democrat, had recommended that if the amendment passed, legislators should take a year to research and design a ''holistic'' system that also includes early voting and voting in person.
Connecticut voters recently agreed to change the state's constitution to allow early in-person voting, which took place for the first time in the March primaries. There were 14 days of early voting for the general election. Besides being mailed, absentee ballots can also be put in drop boxes located in every city and town, or submitted to local election offices.
Twenty-eight states let voters request an absentee ballot without requiring an excuse, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Eight more states, plus Washington, D.C., go a step further and automatically mail a ballot to all registered voters without them having to request one.
Critics of Connecticut's proposed change, mostly Republicans, have questioned the safeguards surrounding the state's current absentee ballot system.