(Alexandria, VA) – March 17, 2021: Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) President J. Christian Adams testified before the Connecticut General Assembly for Government Administration and Elections regarding absentee voting.
In prepared remarks, Adams notes that:
“In the aftermath of the 2020 Election, legislators must come to understand that the overall quality of an election experience relying heavily on mail balloting rests on the reliability of the voter registration lists. Vote by mail plus inaccurate registration lists equal problems.”
Adams points to issues in Connecticut voter registration list unearthed by the Public Interest Legal Foundation.
“We warned of flaws within the statewide voter registration list, namely: –12,000 registrants matching against a verifiable federal death record; and –470 examples of apparent duplication across state lines with voting credits in 2018.”
He, also, revealed new findings from Connecticut’s voter rolls from early 2021 that show duplicates registered to vote.
“We found 2,625 highly likely duplicate sets in the current file. Even more concerning are the duplicate vote credits assigned throughout this dataset, numbering at 77 instances for the 2020 General Election…If both versions of Mr. Adams are uniquely offered mail ballots, you begin to see how what seemed to be a clerical problem can mushroom into something far worse.”
In conclusion, Adams argues that Connecticut’s current absentee balloting system does not need to be reformed and that a move to mass mail balloting would result in more errors including lost ballots and more opportunities for fraud.
Mail ballots can disenfranchise voters because of errors and lost mail. The same cannot be said for in person voting. Connecticut policy does not need a substantial overhaul. Flaws in the voter rolls have traditionally been mitigated at the polling place. Existing absentee voting systems balance access, administrative costs, and procedural transparency.
Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is a 501(c)(3) public interest law firm dedicated to election integrity. The Foundation exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections. Drawing on numerous experts in the field, PILF seeks to protect the right to vote and preserve the Constitutional framework of American elections. ###