Many Connecticut cities and towns are expecting a higher number of voters to show up at the polls for tomorrow’s midterm election, especially when it comes to younger voters.
A spokesperson for the Secretary of the State said they advised towns to order ballots as if this was a presidential election instead of a midterm. In this scenario it’s better to overestimate in than underestimate.
Monday Registrar of Voters offices were in full preparation swing to make sure everything runs smoothly on Election Day.
At the New London Registrar of Voters office, the phones were ringing off the hook, the printer was buzzing almost non-stop, people were walking in with questions and Democratic Registrar Bill Giesing was working on checking items off his “to-do” list.
“Today’s a lot of crazy. Do you hear that phone ringing?” Giesing said.
He calls the Monday before Election Day the busiest day for his office.
As for turnout, he said New London might see higher college-aged turnout than the last midterm election – but many will register the day of the election – and more overall voters than the 2014 midterm.
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“We’re a very transient population. So we have a lot of people move in but then we have a lot of people moving out so it’s pretty hard to gauge that,” Giesing said.
In Colchester, Republican Registrar of Voters Linda Grzeika said they listened to the Secretary of the State and ordered enough ballots for 80 percent of registered voters.
“We told our workers we expect there are going to be lines and just be calm,” Grzeika said.
While she said they don’t expect to run out of ballots, the town does have a contingency plan in place.
“It means more work for us because we can copy the ballots, people can fill out ballots that are copied. But those have to be hand counted,” Grzeika said.
Middletown Republican Registrar of Voters David Bauer said the office is preparing for 16,000 to 18,000 voters Tuesday, which is more voters than an average gubernatorial race.
“We generally expect in Middletown maybe 50 to 55 percent for gubernatorial. We’re anticipating, we’re planning for probably 65 percent or higher,” Bauer said.
They’ll have extra volunteers at each of their 14 polling places. They’ll set them up very early in the morning, before the polls open at 6 a.m.
“We even have a couple reserve poll workers anticipating it’s going to be a pretty active election,” Bauer said.
