Connecticut’s top election official says about 35% of the state’s registered voters participated in Tuesday’s municipal elections.
There were some minor glitches despite a lower voter turnout than for presidential elections, Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas said at a news briefing after the polls closed.
“There were eight towns that were running low on ballots toward the end of the evening,” she said.
In a handful of towns, including Norwalk, Torrington and Southbury, there were problems with some of the new tabulators that had been deployed for the first time.
“Many of them had to be cleaned because towns we suspect were using a type of pen where the ink didn’t dry fast enough. So, when it scanned through the machine, it created issues.” Thomas said.
The towns used special bins when the tabulators were not working.
“We had reports of voters being confused by that and thinking something odd was happening. But that was actually in accordance with the regulations, until the backup machines can be activated,” Thomas said.
This was a test for the new tabulators, which will be deployed at all polling stations for next year’s elections, according to state election officials.
