A little known section of Connecticut elections law allows a small subset of voters to change their ballots before election day.
For voters who have already submitted absentee ballots, they can have their ballot withdrawn that they’ve already delivered to their local registrar and submit a new ballot in person.
“They must withdraw it before Election Day and then they must vote in person,” said Melissa Russell, the President of the Registrars of Voters Association of Connecticut and the Republican Registrar for the town of Bethlehem.
Russell said it’s meant for people to be able to cast their ballot in person, which is one of the main intentions of Connecticut election law. She also said there is paperwork involved.
“What you need to do is sign off and swear that you’re not going to be in town or that you have religious reasons that you are not going to vote in person.”
The issue of vote changing has been brought up on the campaign trail by Donald Trump, urging voters who may have “buyer’s remorse,” to change their ballots from Hillary Clinton to him. Several states have wider provisions and reasons for allowing people to change their votes like in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan.
Deputy Secretary of the State James Spallone explains that in Connecticut the law is extremely narrow when it comes to allowing a vote change.
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"The way the statute is written, if a person votes by absentee ballot and they realize that they will be able to vote in person the law is written to encourage people to vote in person."
Even if someone’s intent is to change their vote rather than the realization that they will be able to vote in person, Spallone said that doesn’t matter.
"How they vote is secret and the law is designed to allow them to vote in person instead of by absentee if they're available."
