I wanted to vote early for Haley

Hoping for more relevance in the presidential primary season, Connecticut agreed to change its political calendar last year by moving its piece of the national contest forward about a month.

It is now scheduled for the first Tuesday in April this year instead of the last Tuesday.

In accommodating the two major parties and their respective rules, early April was about the best the state could do in moving up its presidential primary voting.

The idea, of course, was to be more relevant in the national contest, so that Connecticut voters would have a chance to participate before the nominations were already secured.

There was even some talk last fall, when the change was made, of economic benefits with the idea that candidates and their staffers would be spending money as they flooded the state to woo Connecticut citizens.

But none of that is going to happen this year.

With Nikki Haley suspending her campaign Wednesday, the contest, as is usual, is already decided before Connecticut goes to the polls.

Even before the Super Tuesday voting began, I was prepared for the inevitable Donald Trump sweep of delegates and a Haley suspension.

Still, I fantasized about the contest still being alive and being able to vote April 2 or sooner for Haley, a vote that might count in some infinitesimally small way toward making the point that there can be a Republican future without Trump.

Alas, my former editor, the talented Elissa Bass, Stonington Democratic registrar of voters, told me this week it was too late to switch my party affiliation as a Democrat and vote April 2 in the Republican primary. The deadline clock for changing parties stops 90 days before the vote in Connecticut.

I would gladly have voted for Haley knowing she clearly has a better chance of beating President Joe Biden in November than Trump. At least it would have been a contest between two normalized candidates with policy differences.

It’s not too late in Connecticut for unaffiliated voters to register as Republicans and vote against Trump or, of course, as Democrats to register a symbolic vote for Biden.

The unaffiliated can register a party affiliation with a party up until the day before they vote, but registering and voting, two separate errands, is probably more than most people would bother with in order to make a point.

I would hope, though, that a lot of registered Republicans who are as repulsed and alarmed by the grifter-racist-insurrectionist-misogynist candidate Trump as I am, will turn out and vote against him in Connecticut’s primary.

They can still send a message. Actually, the ballots are printed,

and Connecticut Republicans, long-time or freshly registered, can vote for Trump, Haley, Ron DeSantis or Ryan Binkley.

They can also vote early for the first time this year in Connecticut.

Early voting will take place at designated polls in each town March 26, 27, 28 and 30. You fill out a ballot and drop it in a box just like Election Day.

I would hope Connecticut Republicans might turn out in large numbers with all that voting opportunity, and vote for Haley. Send a loud message that Connecticut Republicans are not buying into an authoritarian Trump presidency.

Vermont and Washington, D.C., sent that clear message, giving Haley wins. Connecticut can too.

Trump is certainly prepared to claim enough delegates to take the nomination, but he, unlike Biden, hasn’t been able to unite his party.

Haley managed to secure almost 25 percent of the vote Tuesday against a former president, a virtual incumbent in the world of primary voting, in some ways a shellacking.

Some other brave Republican stalwarts are also taking principled stands this primary season. U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah said recently he won’t vote for Trump because of a lack of character in the candidate.

I wish I could have registered my own voting salute to the determined Haley trying to rescue the normalcy of her party and, by extension, our treasured democracy.