Will This Be Another Meager Primary Turnout Year for Connecticut?

Primary elections don’t always fire up the electorate, and with no hot contest on today’s Republican ballot, turnout is expected to be lukewarm at best. That’s typical for Connecticut’s late-in-the-season primaries; over the last three presidential election cycles, only 2008′s tight Democratic battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton brought a majority of one party’s voters to the polls.

The chart below shows the percentage of each party’s registered active voters who cast ballots on primary day. To refresh your recollection: In 2008, Obama edged out Clinton by a margin of 50.7 percent to 46.7 percent. On the Republican side, John McCain garnered 52.0 percent of the vote to Mitt Romney’s 32.9 percent. In 2004, President George Bush ran unopposed and John Kerry won the Democratic race. In 2000, John McCain won the Republican contest and Al Gore was the Democratic winner.