The Super Bowl is this weekend, and everyone loves a good game. The stadium, the lights, and the thrill of a game-winning touchdown in the final moments all keep us on the edge of our seats.
But for civil rights and liberties advocates like me and my team at the ACLU of Connecticut, we’re focused on another kind of big score: Getting voting rights properly funded by our state legislature and Governor Lamont.
Picture this: the Capitol is our football field, the shining lights are the bright beacons of democracy, and our team — a broad coalition of voting rights advocates — has trained hard. We’ve run the plays, coached each other on and off the field, and now we’re ready for the final stretch.
Connecticut is lagging behind much of the country when it comes to voting rights. While we do have a state voting rights act, we’re new to the early voting process, which nearly every other state adopted before us. Last November, 840,000 of us voted to expand absentee voting and voter accessibility. That’s the fan base demanding change.
Voting rights are fundamental to a functioning democracy, and funding our election processes, ballot needs, election worker training, and the Secretary of the State’s office is crucial to ensuring the success of our democratic system in Connecticut. Yet, funds from the American Rescue Plan Act that were used to support the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act are not included in this year’s budget. Properly funding the timely implementation of no-excuse absentee voting — including a robust ballot curing process to ensure every vote counts — is the ball game.
Our Connecticut voting rights coalition, made up of groups from across the state, is playing the game well. We organize, mobilize, meet with representatives, and strategize together. Last year, we led significant voter education efforts ahead of the election, and with your help, we made our voices heard at the ballot box: The people want more access to voting.
The people deserve to have their civic participation funded.
Voting rights shouldn’t be sidelined for political purposes.
There’s been much talk about the state budget — whether to relax volatility caps or how to change spending limits. Meanwhile, the ACLU of Connecticut is examining the constitutionality of the fiscal guardrails themselves. A state budget that fails to deliver well-funded, accessible voting rights to its people is a broken budget.
We know the money exists to fund voting rights, and we demand that our democratic foundations be properly supported. We encourage you to talk to your legislators and call the governor to express the urgent need for funding our electoral process.
Keep your eye on the ball, Connecticut: Securing proper funding for elections isn’t just a touchdown in the Super Bowl of democracy — it’s the ultimate victory.
