Connecticut Republicans are pushing for election reform despite the rejection of their proposal in the General Administration and Elections Committee.
They claim the state’s Democratic majority has failed to adequately deal with election integrity issues despite an absentee ballot stuffing scandal in Bridgeport.
Democrats have approved several measures in the elections committee to deal with the problems exposed by the Bridgeport scandal. But Republicans claim the measures don’t go far enough.
Senate Republican Leader Stephen Harding said the committee should not have rejected GOP proposals.
“These are actual policies, in our opinion, that will actually restore integrity in our elections, gain voter confidence from voters across our state, and actually move forward in a positive direction and actually do something about what happened in Bridgeport,” he said.
The GOP proposals would prohibit the mailing of unsolicited absentee ballot applications and require voter roll audits and copies of driver’s licenses or photo IDs in absentee ballot envelopes.
Senator Mae Flexer, the Democratic co-chair of the GAE committee, said those proposals would make it harder for people to vote.
“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,” Flexer said in a statement released by the Democrats
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