It's Your Right – Why Voting Matters

Section 1 | Section 2 | Section 3 | Section 4 | Concluding Activity

Section 2: Institutional and Technical Processes of Voting

Voting and Ballot Technology

• Comparative Voting Systems lesson plan

Resources:

• Voting Equipment in the United States (Verified Voting—contains information on historical and current voting technologies)
• Types of Ballots (Boundless—contains glossary of terms)

Primary/general elections & referendums

• Types of Elections (Boundless—contains glossary of terms, explains primary versus general elections, as well as referendums and recalls)
• The Electoral Process (icivics.org—teachers need to set up a free account to access resources for this lesson plan; includes information on primaries, caucuses and general elections, as well as an explanation of the Electoral College)

Voting systems

• Mock Legislative Hearing lesson plan 
  • On the ballot this November : There is a referendum on the ballot that would change our state’s constitution to allow legislators the flexibility to enact some of these methods of voting. Assume that the referendum passes. Students will be testifying about whether to enact changes such as no-excuse absentee voting, early voting or vote-by-mail. They can also testify not to change anything by supporting leaving current voting laws in place.

Background information:

• Absentee and Early Voting (National Conference of State Legislatures [NCSL]) Contains information on no excuse absentee voting and early voting, both of which CT does not have.
  • Contains information on permanent absentee ballots, which CT does offer.
  • Pre-Election Day Voting: Just the FAQs, Ma’am (NCSL—article discussing pros and cons of early voting)
  • No Excuse Needed to Vote Absentee in Minnesota (Duluth News Tribune article)
• Article on no excuse absentee voting coming to Minnesota. Discussion of the changes for Minnesotans (who previously had to provide excuses similar to CT voters) is very similar to the change that Connecticut voters would experience if we were to decide to go to no excuse absentee ballots.
• Also discusses online voter registration, which Connecticut enacted this year.
• All-Mail Elections (AKA Vote-by-mail) (NCSL)
• Voting by Mail? Ohio Considers It (blog.cleveland.com article on pros and cons of all-mail elections)

Institutional Process- Court cases that have changed processes and policies regarding voting and voter registration

• Supreme Court Case Analysis lesson plan
• Supreme Court Cases Lesson

Shelby County v. Holder

• Details on Shelby County v. Holder: In Plain English (SCOTUSblog—contains links to original documents)
• LII Supreme Court Bulletin (Legal Information Institute, Cornell University Law School—comprehensive guide)

For more information, please email whyvotingmatters@ct.gov.

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