Press Releases
06/19/2020
Statement in Response to Lawsuit Challenging Secretary Merrill's Interpretation of 9-135
"No Connecticut voter should have to choose between their health and their right to vote. As America comes together to battle the COVID-19 virus and to ensure voter participation in an election that will be held under difficult circumstances, this suit seeks to harm both efforts in Connecticut.
"This suit would force people with serious health conditions to come to a polling place in person, despite the CDC warning that their health conditions increase their risk of COVID-19. Voters with heart disease, asthma, or who are immunocompromised because of cancer treatment are at high risk and should have the option of voting safely by absentee ballot.
"It would force doctors, nurses, and EMTs, who have already been putting their lives at risk for our safety, to enter a polling place and interact with poll workers who will see hundreds of other people on Election Day. No voter or poll worker should be forced to potentially infect their friends and neighbors.
"It would force senior citizens, already at higher risk for contracting COVID-19 and less likely to recover completely, and their caregivers to enter polling places and risk their health, when a safer option is available, legal, and constitutional.
"This suit will make tens of thousands of my constituents unnecessarily vulnerable to COVID-19. It is wildly irresponsible and I intend to defend Connecticut's voters' right to vote to the full extent of the law."
- Connecticut Secretary of the State Denise Merrill
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