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Committee raises 26 election-related concepts, including deepfakes and absentee-voting changes
Summary
The Government Administration and Elections Committee voted to raise 26 concepts for drafting, covering topics from deepfakes and election security to absentee voting aligned with a November 2024 constitutional amendment and fees for body-worn camera records.
The Government Administration and Elections Committee on Feb. 23, 2026, voted to raise 26 conceptual items for drafting, setting the stage for bills this session on topics that include deepfakes and elections, election security, absentee voting, body-worn camera-record fees and consumer protections for online political donation platforms.
Madam Chair opened the session and summarized the concepts: "Item Number 1, is an act concerning deepfakes and elections," she said, then proceeded through the full list of concepts the committee will consider. She asked staff to work with legislators as concepts are converted into bill language.
Representative Mastro Francesco, the committee's ranking member, urged clearer public-facing summaries of the concepts. "They're just titles and people in the public don't really understand them," he said, asking chairs to provide brief plain-language explanations for each concept so voters can follow what the committee is contemplating.
The list includes: a deepfakes-and-elections concept; multiple election-security vehicles (including polling-place security and resources for towns storing ballots and new tabulator machines); freedom-of-information reviews as they relate to ballots and privacy; a concept to implement recommendations from the Secretary of the State; items to align statutes with a November 2024 constitutional amendment on absentee voting and to study operational detail if absentee voting volume changes; updates to the State Properties Review Board and State Contracting Standards Board; proposals on the Connecticut Siting Council and faithless presidential electors; consumer-protection proposals for prepaid accounts and online donation platforms; campaign-finance and Citizens' Election Program reviews; timing changes for special elections after a member's death; recurring designation bills (days/weeks/months); contracting for traffic video services and fees to process police body-worn camera and dashboard-camera records; a review of the Secretary of the State Confidential Address Program; gubernatorial order-of-succession changes; and reestablishing a Legislative Program Review and Investigations Committee.
On the procedural motion, members raised the concepts by voice vote; remote participants verbally confirmed attendance and assent during the roll call. The chair recorded the items as "raised" for drafting and future public hearings; the record does not include a numerical roll-call tally.
What happens next: the concepts will be converted into bill language by Legislative Commissioners' Office staff and committee drafters; individual bills will return for public hearings and formal committee votes in coming weeks. The committee did not adopt any final statutory language today — members approved only that the ideas be drafted into bills.
Provenance: The committee discussed each concept in sequence during the meeting; the motion and voice vote took place near the meeting's close when the chair asked members to "please signify by saying aye" and remote members confirmed their votes.
