Conn. Weighing Broader Early Voting Rules

HARTFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork) - Connecticut lawmakers could make Election Day easier for state residents.

Many states in the union have taken steps to ease the election process for voters.

There is a push under way to have Connecticut become the next state to eliminate restrictions on early voting and to make it easier for voters to access and use absentee ballots.

Steps to open up the process were initiated by Gov. Dannel Malloy and Secretary of the State Denise Merrill.

"Thirty-two states have some form of either early voting, absentee ballots. Oregon, for example, has complete mail-in balloting. They don't really do Election Day anymore and they love it and they have the highest turnout in the country," Merrill told WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau.

Voters would have to agree to eliminate the current restrictions on early voting. They would also have to approve a measure making it easier for voters to access and use absentee ballots.

"People in Connecticut keep saying 'why can't we have those things?' Well, the reason is because our state constitution has limitations on all these things," Merrill told Schneidau.

The vote on the early voting proposal is slated for Nov. 2014. The earliest the ballot restrictions might be lifted would be in 2015, Schneidau reported.

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