Unaffiliated voters who wish to cast ballots in the Aug. 12 primary elections face quickly-approaching deadlines to register as Republicans or Democrats.
It is already too late to switch from one party to another before the primary. But unaffiliated voters and residents who have not yet registered to vote can register and sign up with a political party in person at their town offices until Aug. 11 at noon.
They can also fill out the paperwork and submit them online or print out the forms and mail them into their town offices. But in that case, their deadline is no later than next Thursday, Aug. 7.
Voter turnout for both parties is expected to be low, according to Av Harris, communications director for Secretary of State Denise Merrill. However, it is expected to be much lower on the Democratic side because the most significant primary elections this year are between Republican candidates.
Harris said he expects about 120,000 Republicans to go to the polls and pick their candidate for statewide offices including governor, lieutenant governor, and comptroller. Democrats and Republicans will pick their state representative and state senate candidates in many legislative districts.
“Republicans will have a higher turnout, but that means about 25 – 30 percent of registered voters,” Harris said. “In the grand scheme that’s not a high turnout, but it’s pretty average for a statewide primary.”
For both Democrats and Republicans, the voter turnout can still include 17-year-old residents who will turn 18 years old prior to the Nov. 4 general election as they can still register and vote in the primary election. They face the same registration deadlines as other voters.
According to the latest voter registration numbers, Connecticut now has close to 2 million active registered voters and the biggest chunk of them, 801,752, are unaffiliated. Meanwhile there are 704,561 Democrats and 399,815 Republicans. More than 32,000 residents have joined the voter rolls since the beginning of this year, according to Merrill’s office.
Here is a list of all the Aug. 12 primary races, according to the Office of the Secretary of the State (* denotes party endorsed candidate):
Governor
Republican
*Thomas Foley
John McKinney
Lieutenant Governor
Republican
*Penny Bacchiochi
Heather Somers
David Walker
Comptroller
Republican
*Sharon McLaughlin
Angel Cadena
State Senate District 2
(Parts of Bloomfield, Hartford and Windsor)
Democratic
*Shawn Wooden
Eric Coleman
Len Walker
State Senate 20
(Bozrah, East Lyme, New London, Old Lyme, Salem, Waterford and parts of Montville and Old Saybrook)
Democratic
*Elizabeth Ritter
William Satti
State Senate 22
(Trumbull and parts of Bridgeport and Monroe)
Democratic
*Anthony Musto
Marilyn Moore
State Senate 23
(Parts of Bridgeport and Stratford)
Democratic
*Andres Ayala Jr.
Scott Hughes
House District 7
(Parts of Hartford)
Democratic
*Douglas McCroy
Donna Thompson-Daniel
House District 23
(Lyme, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook and parts of Westbrook)
Republican
*Devin Carney
Vicki Lanier
House District 32
(Cromwell, Portland)
Democratic
*Kathleen Richards
Anthony “Tony” Salvatore
House District 44
(Parts of Killingly and Plainfield)
Democratic
*Christine Rosati
Michael Cartier
House District 47
(Canterbury, Chaplin, Franklin, Hampton, Scotland, parts of Lebanon, Lisbon, Norwich and Sprague)
Republican
Doug Dubitsky
Noah Enslow
Michael Meadows
House District 48
(Parts of Colchester, Lebanon, Mansfield, and Windham)
Democratic
*Linda Orange
Jason Paul
House District 64
(Canaan, Cornwall, Kent, Norfolk, North Canaan, Salisbury, Sharon and parts of Goshen and Torrington)
Republican
*Brian Ohler
Mark Lauretano
House District 122
(Parts of Shelton, Stratford, Trumbull)
Republican
*Ben McGorty
Michael Vickerelli
House District 124
(Parts of Bridgeport)
Democratic
*Ernie Newton
Andre Baker
House District 128
(Parts of Bridgeport)
Democratic
*Christopher Rosario
Christina Ayala
Dennis Bradley
Teresa Davidson
House District 133
(Parts of Fairfield)
Democratic
*Cristin McCarthey Vahey
Matt Waggner
House District 137
(Parts of Norwalk)
Democratic
*David Watts
Chris Perrone
House District 140
(Parts of Norwalk)
Democratic
*Bruce Morris
Warren Pena
House District 142
(Parts of New Canaan and Norwalk)
Republican
*Emily Wilson
Fred Wilms
Probate District 27
(Plainfield, Killingly)
Democratic
*Andrea Truppa
Anna Zubkova
Probate District 34
(Madison, Guilford)
Republican
*William Bilcheck
Gail Kotowski
Registrar of Voters- Bristol
Democratic
*Kevin McCauley
Mary Rydingsward
Registrar of Voters – Chaplin
Republican
*Eugene Boomer Jr.
William Jenkins
Registrar of Voters – Danbury
Democratic
*Susan Lewis Ward
Margaret Gallo
Registrar of Voters – Hampton
Democratic
*Marilynn Higgins
Matthew LaFontaine
Registrar of Voters – North Stonington
Democratic
*Marilynn MacKay
Joan Kepler
Registrar of Voters – Norwalk
Republican
*John Federici
Karen Doyle Lyons
Registrar of Voters – Somers
Republican
William Carl Walton III
David McCaffrey
