Their authoritarian instinct is showing. Six legislators want fines for not voting. Would require written explanation.

Five House Democrats and one Senate Democrat revealed their anti-democratic credentials with a bill to require voters to vote. Voters who fail to cast a vote in an election will face an order to explain why they did not cast a ballot. Failure to provide an acceptable explanation will cause the imposition of a fine.

And we still call Connecticut the Constitution State.

The right to vote is accompanied by the essential freedom not to. It appears not to have occurred to the tyrannical six that many voters decline to participate in an election because the choices may be so unpalatable to sensible people. The failure is often not with the voters but with the candidates.

The half-dozen bullies may not have considered the consequences of their despotism: more people will not register to vote.

Representatives Josh Elliott, Brandon Chafee, Michael D’Agostino, Anne Hughes and Geraldo Reyes, and Senator Saud Anwar have mistaken “civic engagement” autocracy. It’s unlikely that each provides a written explanation each time they fail to cast a roll call vote in a committee or in the House or Senate–and they are paid to vote.

They cannot have considered the replies voters would send to election officials? The air turns blue contemplating the responses. And what would the imperious six deem “a valid reason” for not voting? Their arrogance and self-delusion blind them to an essential democratic norm–to be left alone.

Published February 6, 2023.