Two Connecticut voters have sued the state in federal court demanding that the state allow remote gathering of election petitions and no-excuse absentee voting during the pandemic.
The plaintiffs, Andy Gottlieb and Lorna Chand, ran an unsuccessful attempt to petition onto the ballot for state Senate in 2018. Alexander Taubes, their lawyer, says his clients want Governor Ned Lamont and Secretary of the State Denise Merrill to change Connecticut’s law on absentee voting because it is too stringent.
“They want to challenge the six specific excuses that are allowed for mail-in ballots. And they want every voter in the state of Connecticut to have the constitutional right to send in their ballot by mail.”
Lamont has expressed a willingness to ease some voting restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but he says he can’t do it alone.
“We are going to do the executive order that makes it easier to vote for the primary in August. And we are going to have the legislature come into session probably in June that we are going to have to solve the opportunity for people to vote remotely in November as well. At least those folks of a certain age that should not be going out to the voting booth.”
Secretary of the State Merrill has already ordered that applications for absentee ballots be mailed out to all registered voters in the state.
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