Right now we don’t have any sort of voting early or vote by mail aside from absentee because of the state constitution. Our absentee statute isn’t even “no excuse” absentee. Prior to the changes for COVID, where they allow to specify “sickness” to get an absentee ballot, you were signing an oath stating that you were gone for one of a few reasons. Connecticut is one of four states that makes it this hard to vote - along with New Hampshire, Alabama, and Mississippi.

It wasn’t a huge deal, but it became a big deal when you found out about travel less than a week before the election and the absentee ballot deadline had passed. The emergency absentee ballot guidelines did not list travel as a reason to get an emergency absentee ballot - it’s only unforeseen illness or being in a hospital. Thus, if you found out that you needed to travel or even had a large change in shift (let’s be honest, employers generally do not provide time off to vote), you would be disenfranchised for the election. I had this happen twice in six years - once for work and once for a funeral.

This is in contrast to other states where once I found out I just went to a county building and cast my vote early. Easy, peasy.