More than 275,000 people have registered to vote in Connecticut since 2016.
While political trends have certainly contributed to the steep increase in registrations, it’s become easier to register to vote in Connecticut during that period of time.
The state started registering and changing registrations at the Department of Motor Vehicles and that has led to a steady stream of sign-ups.
"Using the DMV as an example they instituted about three election cycles ago. We get a lot of voter registrations,” said Jim Stevenson, the Democratic registrar of voters in Manchester. “People have the opportunity, it's easy, it's just a few clicks away when they're doing that transaction at DMV."
Secretary of the State Denise Merrill estimated that more than half of all new registrations came through motor vehicle transactions, one way or another.
She said she hopes the increased number of registered voters in a non-presidential year also leads to a significantly higher turnout in the primary on August 14.
"I would be very happy about that because that's all about voter engagement,” Merrill said. “People, for the first time in a long time really want to be involved and whatever side they're on, they're interested and they're listening carefully."
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Democrats already outnumber Republicans by a two to one margin and the trend continued with the new registrations. Democrats registered more than 81,000 new voters while Republicans registered more than 43,000.
