About 1.1 Million Adults Can Vote In Tuesday’s Primaries; Some Polling Places Changed

About 1.1 million adults are eligible to vote in Tuesday’s primaries across the state, but insiders expect only about 25 to 30 percent will actually vote.

“I’ll be frankly happy with a 30 percent turnout,” Secretary of the State Denise Merrill told reporters Monday.

Merrill’s office was making the final preparations for the voting, saying that anyone with complaints or issues on primary day should call the state’s hotline at 1-866-SEEC-INFO, which is 1-866-733-2463. They can also send an email to elections@ct.gov to report any problems that come up with ballots or voting. As usual, the polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

With this year’s redistricting across the state, many voters will see that their polling place has changed. The state has more than 800 polling places in 169 cities and towns, but Merrill did not immediately have the total of polling places that have been switched.

Even the state’s top elected official, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, had his polling place changed to the Hartford Seminary at 77 Sherman Street in the city’s West End. The site changed because the district lines were redrawn in Hartford and numerous other communities through recalculations in the once-per-decade U.S. Census.

In Bridgeport, former state Sen. Ernest Newton is concerned that about 6,000 African-Americans in the north end of Bridgeport will be unable to vote Tuesday because of the redistricting. Those residents have been switched into the 22nd Senatorial district of Sen. Anthony Musto, who does not have a primary.

The change includes the removal of the 400-apartment Trumbull Gardens complex and the Lake Forest neighborhood from the Bridgeport district and their placement into the Trumbull-dominated district.

But Marty Dunleavy, the campaign manager for incumbent Sen. Edwin Gomes, said the redistricting prompted only minor changes in the boundary lines and will not have a major impact on Tuesday’s primary.

“Dunleavy doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” said Newton, who has been locked in a war of words with Dunleavy recently. “Tell Dunleavy the NAACP in Bridgeport and the minister alliance is fighting it. He has no clue.”

Newton was referring to the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Greater Bridgeport.  He also rejected the widespread assumption that the turnout will be low in Bridgeport.

“I don’t believe that. Time will tell,” Newton told Capitol Watch. “I’ll make a believer of y’all sooner or later.”