Connecticut local election officials are better prepared to handle early voting for November’s general election following a successful rollout of the process for Tuesday’s primaries, according to Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas.
Republican lawmakers have criticized that only about 8,800 Connecticut voters took advantage of early voting leading up to the primaries.
They said the many days of early voting placed an undue burden on town budgets.
But Thomas said local election officials had learned a lot from the weeklong process, even though lawmakers declined to fund a public information campaign.
“The entire election community is doing what they can within their available resources to help the public understand that early voting is finally here in Connecticut and to make sure they have the details to utilize it,” Thomas said.
She praised the town of Hamden for having the highest number of early voters.
“They were 1,300. The next nearest town was 360. And that was the same in the presidential preference primary. So, it shows that if efforts are made to reach out to voters directly and educate them, we can expect to see more turnout in the polls,” Thomas said.
Her office will use its own resources to print and distribute early voting guides to every library in the state ahead of the November general election.
Connecticut will have a week of early voting before the election.
