The debut of early voting in Connecticut

A new era of ballot access began at 10 a.m. March 26, the first minute of early voting in the state. Connecticut was one of the last four states that had resisted the trend toward in-person voting ahead of Election Day.

There were four days of early voting for the presidential primary: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Municipal buildings were closed on Good Friday. With the nominations settled, the parties made little effort to publicize the early voting — or the primaries.

The greatest number of early votes were cast in Hamden, a New Haven suburb with 34,000 active voters. About 1,200 people voted early there, which Thomas attributed to postcards local officials mailed publicizing the early voting.

There will be seven days of early voting for any state, legislative or congressional primaries on Aug. 13, and 14 days before the general election in November.

Thomas said she will debrief local election officials about early voting in a conference call on Wednesday. The state has provided only $5 million for the added expense of early voting, about half the projected cost.

Comptroller Sean Scanlon, who co-chaired the Biden campaign in Connecticut in 2020, said a low-turnout Tuesday primary would signify nothing about the interest of the electorate in the general election rematch between Biden and Trump.

“I don’t think this primary is particularly important to a lot of people,” Scanlon said. “But the November election is, and I think that people are seeing the clear choice that they face and that we face as a country today. And that choice in my mind couldn’t be clearer. And I think that even for people who don’t show up to vote today, that’s not an indication that they’re not going to show up in November.”