Copyright Hartford Courant
Early voting is off and running in Connecticut, and some communities are seeing strong turnout. Early voting began on Oct. 20 and continues through Nov. 2. According to Secretary of the State’s office, there were 68,600 votes cast as well as 12,724 absentee ballots through 10 a.m. on Monday. Election Day is Nov. 4. This is just the second early voting cycle in Connecticut. The first was in 2024. “This is the first time we’ve had early voting for municipal elections so we don’t have an easy comparison because the presidential election last year has a much higher turnout, but we are seeing in some towns the amount of early voting we are getting is a significant percentage of the turnout they had in the 2023 election,” said Roger Senserrich, a spokesperson for the Secretary of the State. Early voting hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at a designated site in each city and town. Extended hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. will be offered on Oct. 28 and 30. Voting guide 2025: Deadlines, early voting and what’s on Connecticut ballots Ballots vary from town to town, but voters may be voting on mayor, selectmen, town councilors and town clerk, board of education and constable depending on the community. Stratford is tops in the state, with 2,321 people casting ballots through Monday morning. Stratford had total 9,694 voters in 2023. Judging from the turnout so far this year, Senserrich said 50% of those who cast votes in Stratford will have done it through early vote if turnout is the same. He added that turnout may be higher because so many people are voting early. “Stratford is getting crazy turnout numbers, and Milford and Hamden are having a pretty high percentage of the amount of people who voted in ’23. In the 2024 election, about 40% of state voters voted early so we are seeing in some towns it’s going to be above that. There’s also differences between towns if they have a competitive election,” Senserrich said. Milford had 1,870 votes and Hamden 1,683 through Monday morning. Among the other communities with significant early votes were Trumbull (1,562), Greenwich (1,558), Norwalk (1,282), Bristol (1,217), Fairfield (1,201), Stamford (1,137) and West Hartford (1,116). Many of the top early voting numbers were towns in Fairfield County, and Senserrich said that was the case in the 2024 early voting period as well. “Early vote seems to vary from town to town, but some communities have high turnout no matter what,” Senserrich said. “In places like Hartford, New Haven or Stamford, you have one early voting site for the whole city so it’s not as convenient for early as it would be in smaller towns.” Through Monday morning, the 68,600 voters were broken down by 34,913 Democrats, 14,720 Republicans, 18,140 unaffiliated and 827 listed as other. There were 512 early voters with same-day registration. As far breakdown of the 12,724 absentee ballots, 6,578 were from registered Democrats, 2,743 were Republicans, 3,266 were unaffiliated and 137 were listed as other. “People seem to really appreciate the early voting that’s available,” Senserrich said. “Almost 70,000 people is a lot of people.”
