As the deadline for voter registration before this November’s election looms, Registrars of Voters across the state will be open tomorrow from 10 am to 2pm to allow for in-person registration and training of voters on the new optical scanning machines. Voter registration forms sent by mail must be postmarked no later than Tuesday October 21st and the final deadline to register to vote in person at town offices is Tuesday October 28th at 8:00 p.m. You can download voter registration forms at www.vote-EZ-CT.com.
It’s been a busy year for CT’s registrars. With nearly 220,000 new voters having registered since the beginning of the year – nearly 50,000 of those in the first half of October alone – the number of registered voters in CT has now surpassed the 2 million mark reports Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz.
“By all accounts 2008 has seen unprecedented interest in our political process and that has only been heightened in recent days,” said Secretary Bysiewicz, “Now that Election Day is upon us, more and more Connecticut residents are realizing it’s time to make a serious decision about the future of this country and they clearly want to make their voices heard on November 4th. It’s truly inspiring.”
Unaffliateds are still the largest voter group of registered voters in the state at 845,311 voters, followed by 750,999 registered Democrats and 418, 531 registered Republicans.
Looking a new registrations, there have been 217, 126 since January 1st, breaking down as follows: 92,752 new registered Democrats, 28,652 new registered Republicans and 94,342 new unaffiliated voters.
The surge in registrations has been in led by young people between the ages of 18 and 29. “Since January 1st, some 91,485 young people have become newly registered voters. Of those new younger voters, 39,392 have registered as Democrats compared to 9,959 who have chosen the Republican Party and 41,504 who have signed up as unaffiliated.”
“All indicators are pointing towards a record turnout on Election Day November 4th and young people are leading the way,” said Bysiewicz, “Cities across Connecticut such as Torrington, Danbury, Manchester, New Haven, Bridgeport, Norwich and many others are seeing much heavier requests for absentee ballots in 2008 than they did for our last presidential election in 2004. I fully expect that we could see a voter turnout figure of 90% of registered voters on November 4th and we may even break the all-time Connecticut record of 93% set in 1960.”
Heavy voter turnout in Bridgeport might not bode well for Chris Shays. A Survey USA/Roll Call Poll released yesterday showed challenger Jim Himes leading Shays by 48%-45% with a 4% margin of error.
