This story first appeared in Bolts, and is reprinted with permission.
In 2020, as the world grappled with a deadly global pandemic, Connecticut officials lifted restrictions limiting who can vote by mail, allowing every citizen in the state to obtain an absentee ballot.
The results were historic: More than 650,000 Connecticut citizens voted absentee, roughly a third of all votes cast.
The liberalization of voting laws benefited everyone in the state who wanted to vote by mail, but the change particularly impacted those with disabilities. Researchers from Rutgers University and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission found that the “disability gap” in Connecticut — the gulf in turnout between voters who had disabilities and those who didn’t — was only 3.3 percent, compared to a national average of 5.7 percent that year.
“People with disabilities are more likely to vote when they have access to voting by mail,” said Douglas Kruse, the co-director of the Program for Disability Research at Rutgers University and one of the report’s authors.
But for the 2022 midterms, Connecticut reverted back, and voters once again needed to have an excuse if they wanted to vote by mail. The result was a disability turnout gap of roughly 11 percent — one of the highest in the country and significantly higher than that year’s national average of 1.5 percent. The turnout was “consistent with the idea that rolling back no-excuse absentee voting discouraged turnout among people with disabilities,” said Kruse.
“It’s not that people with disabilities are less interested in voting,” he continued. It’s that “they face a variety of voting difficulties, everything from getting to the polls, to requesting ballots, to getting inside polling places.”
Mail voting could become easier if Connecticut voters approve a ballot initiative this November that would amend the state Constitution and create a path for everyone to acquire an absentee ballot without needing an excuse. If the proposal passes, it will be up to state legislators to put it into law.
[RELATED: In CT, no-excuse absentee voting is on the ballot. Here’s what to know]
Should the initiative pass and lead to future legislation, Rutgers and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s research suggests it likely will lead to higher turnout among voters with disabilities. Between the 2018 and 2022 midterms, five states switched to a no-excuse system where anyone could vote by mail, leading to an almost seven percent increase in turnout among people with disabilities.
“Just to have that ability to get that ballot, in your hands, no excuse needed, is just huge for people with disabilities,” said Carol Scully, director of advocacy for The Arc Connecticut.
Currently, Connecticut is one of 14 states that require an excuse in order to vote absentee. The state’s Constitution only allows citizens to vote absentee for a handful of specific reasons, which include being sick or out of town on Election Day, or having a physical disability. Even so, not everyone with a disability qualifies for an absentee ballot, and those who must vote in person often have difficulty casting a ballot due to a myriad of possible issues at polling places.
The current statute allows voters with certain disabilities to obtain a permanent absentee ballot, meaning they receive a mail ballot for each election in which they’re eligible to vote. But first, they need to get a note from a doctor stating that they have a permanent physical disability and can’t get to the polls.
“It shouldn’t be on the person with disabilities to prove that they have a right to vote,” said Jess Zaccagnino, policy counsel for the ACLU of Connecticut, which is leading a campaign supporting the ballot initiative.
Existing law is also rigid about what disabilities qualify for an absentee ballot, said Gretchen Knauff, director of Disability Services for the City of New Haven. The statute only allows mail voting for citizens with physical disabilities preventing them from getting to the polls on Election Day, which Knauff said leaves out people with intellectual disabilities or mental health conditions.
“It’s basically treating voters who don’t have physical disabilities differently in the absentee balloting process,” she said. “You’re leaving out people who have disabilities other than physical, and making the assumption they don’t need a permanent absentee ballot.”
People with cognitive impairments are among those least likely to cast a ballot, according to research from Rutgers University and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Lisa Schur, co-director of the Program for Disability Research at Rutgers and one of the report’s authors, said some people with cognitive impairment resulting from a physical disability, like cerebral palsy, would likely qualify for an absentee ballot under Connecticut’s law, but, “it’s kind of a mushy line, so there are a lot of people with cognitive impairments who may not be counted.”
A coalition of voting rights advocates, including the ACLU and a Connecticut chapter of the NAACP, launched a campaign over the summer to build support for the ballot initiative. If the measure is successful, all registered voters would simply be able to request an absentee ballot before each election, and no longer need to navigate logistical hurdles like securing a doctor’s note.
That means people with disabilities would be treated just like everyone else, said Knauff.
“There’s no barrier, except you have to do the same thing that everyone else has to do, which is request a no-excuse absentee ballot,” Knauff said. “You don’t have to spend your energy trying to prove you’re a person with a disability.”
Adopting the measure would put Connecticut in league with the majority of states that already have some level of no-excuse absentee voting. The proposal has broad support among Connecticut residents. A recent poll from the Connecticut Project Action Fund found that 60 percent of voters support expanding no-excuse absentee voting.
Even if voters approve the constitutional amendment, it will be up to state legislators to make it law. Given that the measure was referred to the ballot by lawmakers, advocates are hopeful that they would make it a priority. Still, Zaccagnino cautioned, “There’s nothing stopping them from ignoring it.”
If legislators did have any hesitancy about enacting the measure, it could stem from a scandal over mail ballots that has embroiled Bridgeport in recent years, leading to the arrest of four political operatives this summer over the improper handling of absentee ballots during a 2019 Democratic primary.
Even if Connecticut passes no-excuse absentee voting, advocates for people with disabilities don’t see it as a cure-all. People with disabilities who do decide to vote in person currently face an array of challenges at the polls, said Kasey Considine, supervisory attorney for Disability Rights Connecticut. Voters have reported a lack of parking spaces close to the entrance; doors that aren’t wide enough to fit a scooter or wheelchair; poll workers who aren’t properly trained on how to operate the state’s accessible voting machines, or who make the assumption that people with certain disabilities cannot vote. (The Connecticut Secretary of State’s office did not respond to Bolts’ questions about accessibility at polling locations.)
“It’s incredibly insulting,” said Considine.
In a 2022 video produced by Considine’s organization, Carly Bobenski recalled an Election Day where a poll worker asked her if she wanted to vote for her favorite farm animal.
“My mother and I were really too shocked and embarrassed to say anything except that I had been voting for many years,” said Bobenski, who has cerebral palsy, is quadriplegic and relies on assistive technology to communicate. “By then people were already staring at me.”
The Americans with Disabilities Act requires polling places to provide accommodations for people with disabilities. Voters with disabilities should not need to tell anyone their condition to receive an accommodation. But in practice, Considine said many voters feel they must disclose personal health information to poll workers in order to get what they need to cast a ballot, as uncomfortable as it is.
“It can feel like you have to choose between your right to privacy and your right to vote,” Considine said.
Difficulties at polling stations are not unique to Connecticut. Research from Rutgers University and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission found that 20 percent of voters with a disability had trouble voting in person in the 2022 election, compared to 6 percent of those who voted by mail.
But despite those challenges, Kruse said that about half of people with disabilities would still prefer to vote in person, as long as it’s accessible.
It is not enough, Considine said, for Connecticut voters with disabilities to have to rely on voting by mail because their polling place isn’t accessible enough.
“Everyone should have that freedom to wait in line, cast their vote, fill out the ballot themselves and get that ‘I voted’ sticker,” she said. “I want to make sure that we still are mindful that disabled voters may still want to go in person, and we still have more work to make sure that is accessible.”
But if voting in person proves challenging for people with disabilities, Zaccagnino said, “no-excuse absentee voting also presents another avenue to vote if their needs aren’t being met by the state.”