There are approximately 2.1 million voters registered in Connecticut, with approximately 1.2 million voters registered with political parties in Connecticut and thus eligible to vote in primary elections.
“The ACLU of Connecticut is pleased with the process of early voting in the primary election this year, and looks forward to Connecticut completing the first full election cycle with early voting in history on the November 5th general election,” said David McGuire, executive director.
“We have a closed primary system in Connecticut, which means only a fraction of voters in the state were eligible to vote in the August primaries.”
This election season has seen fewer primary challengers in state and national Connecticut races than others, and turnout is typically lower in U.S. Senate primaries in minority parties when the opponent is a popular incumbent. In Connecticut, primaries are limited only to registered voters affiliated with a political party, therefore 922,765 unaffiliated voters — the largest voting bloc in the state — were ineligible to vote this week.
More than 8,700 ballots were counted for early voting in the August primary. This is just more than one percent of eligible voters.
In April, the presidential primary saw 802,790 registered Democrats in Connecticut. In April, 66,674 (8.31%) voted in that primary. In this week's primary, only a fraction of registered Democrats were eligible to vote for the state House and Senate primaries, as there were only 28 districts with contested races in the state. 164,709 registered Democrats were eligible to vote, with 26,232 (15.98%) voting total.
In Connecticut's Republican presidential primary, there were 471,164 registered Republicans, with 45,117 (9.58%) voting. Despite being the only party to have an August primary in all 169 towns and counties, only about 1% of the 473,316 registered Republicans in the state voted early this month. Total turnout for the August Republican primary was 36,199 (7.63%).
“Our government shouldn’t be run like a business. That is not a necessary or functional measure of success — especially on a local and state level. The government,” said McGuire, “should be run like a government. There is no price you can put on voting access. The profit is the promise of democracy.”
“An early voting process and the availability of polling places to serve all eligible Connecticut voters is the metric of success. It is not government waste to have ample statewide access to early voting.”
The April and August primaries were the first time Connecticut has had constitutionally mandated early voting in its 236 years of statehood. Connecticut was the 46th state in the nation to enact early voting laws.
“We expect the people and the state to continue their support of early voting rights for Connecticut residents,” said McGuire. “In fact, we’ve learned that most Connecticut voters do not know what a full slate of voting rights look like — including early voting and vote by mail options such as no excuse absentee voting. The ACLU of Connecticut and our many community partners are working hard to inform voters in Connecticut about the necessity of complete voting rights — it is a long-fought racial and social justice issue. The more people vote, the more power the people have. And the more people exercise their civil rights and liberties, the more freedom everyone will enjoy.”
