Based on mid-day calls by the Secretary of the State’s office, Republican voters in the small, northwestern town of Cornwall had the strongest Tuesday morning turnout in the GOP primary with 15.4 percent voting as of about 10:30 a.m.
Asked for a rough estimate, Av Harris, a spokesman for the Secretary of the State, said turnout in the GOP primary seemed “pretty low” based on calls conducted between 10:15 a.m. and 12:15 p.m.
“It’s probably going to be overall in the 20s [percent range]. But that’s an educated guess, nothing more,” he said.
Morning turnout numbers were low throughout the state. Just 2.7 percent of Republican voters in Derby had voted by mid-morning. Meanwhile, about 7.6 percent had voted in New Britain. In Newtown, 7.6 percent of Republicans had cast ballots as of 11 a.m.
Republicans are voting in several statewide primary contests including the gubernatorial race between 2010 nominee Tom Foley and Senate Minority Leader John McKinney. In the lieutenant governor’s race, Republicans are picking between convention-endorsed candidate state Rep. Penny Bacchiochi, former Groton Mayor Heather Bond Somers, and former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker.
Voters tend to head to the polls in two large groups: in the morning and in the evening before polls close at 8 pm. This year’s turnout seems on track to be much lower than it was during the 2010 election cycle, when 29.76 percent of Republican primary voters went to the polls.