By Edward D. Dadakis
This Election Day you will be asked to not only vote for candidates to lead Connecticut you will also be asked to cast a vote on a referendum question. That question is “Shall the (Connecticut) Constitution be amended to permit the General Assembly to provide for early voting.” I urge everyone, whether you support early voting or not, to vote NO on this referendum question.
Voting is currently enshrined in Connecticut’s Constitution, our most sacred document. What this referendum does is to take away the Constitutional protection for early voting in order to turn it over to the State Legislature to let them do whatever they want to do with it. The citizens of Connecticut will have no say.
There is no question that well designed early voting rules can be beneficial to the citizenry. And I certainly support the legislature hashing out what they think works best. But then they need to make their recommendations to the citizens of Connecticut providing for the voters, not the politicians, to make the ultimate decision in a subsequent referendum. There is nothing more fair than that. Quite frankly, the legislature could have done it this year. Instead they copped out and are asking you to give them a blank check to do what ever they want to do with early voting and preventing Connecticut citizens from having any recourse on their decision.
I don’t think we should trust the General Assembly on something this critical. After all they don’t have a good record. Remember, the Connecticut General Assembly with their own legislation has made Connecticut’s economy one of the worst in the nation. Due to their action Connecticut is almost always in the bottom 10 of the 50 states for various economic measurements including debt, spending, regulatory environment, economic climate and job growth. But the General Assembly does have us in the top tier for taxing its residents.
The Connecticut General Assembly gave us enormous public debt costing $62,500 per person according to a 2021 report. Most of that debt the General Assembly gave us was to provide luxurious pensions to state workers far beyond the scope of those offered to similar private sector employees.
The Connecticut General Assembly gave us 8-30G which is focused on destroying Greenwich neighborhoods, like the historic 4th ward, with massive developments that bypass local planning and zoning in an effort to force Greenwich to add thousands upon thousands of affordable housing units. Yet that same General Assembly simultaneously denies Greenwich the ability to count all the affordable housing it actually has toward their mandate.
This Connecticut General Assembly continues to focus on implementing a statewide property tax on your home. Some of their proposals would result in Greenwich property taxes almost doubling. That hasn’t passed yet but hold on to your wallet and just wait.
Now this Connecticut General Assembly wants you to surrender your most sacred right— the right to vote—to them to make non-appealable decisions about the early voting process. Do you think the General Assembly has earned your trust enough to warrant trusting them with this important decision. I say the answer is a resounding NO.
To be clear, turning down this referendum is not saying no to early voting. You can be sure we will see a new referendum soon that will actually detail the terms of early voting. Then all Connecticut citizens can debate the pros and cons of the recommendation and cast their vote knowing exactly what they are voting for. But this year to preserve your sacred voting rights, vote No.
Edward Dadakis has served more than 40 years in local Greenwich government.
