At Fairfield Ludlowe High School, the polling place remained quiet as Tuesday's primary voting wound toward a close. Even as voters' work days ended, the turnout remained slow. As of 6:30 p.m., most polling centers were reporting 10 percent to 15 percent of voters coming out for each party, with an expected total of 20 percent by the end of the night, the usual amount for the town.
The Registrar of Voters Office reports 10,089 registered Democrats and 10,426 registered Republicans in town who are eligible to vote in the primary. The town's 14,000 unregistered voters are not allowed to vote in Tuesday's primary. But that did not stop some unregistered voters from showing up at the polls, officials said. Before turning them away, nonpartisan officials asked whether they wanted to affiliate themselves with either party. But even if they did, it was too late for this primary.
With no local positions on the ballot, voters are focusing on state and federal primaries. Republicans will pick nominees for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general as well as U.S. representative for the 4th District and the U.S. Senate. Democrats are voting for a gubernatorial candidate, as well as secretary of the state, lieutenant governor and comptroller.
Officials at Timothy Dwight School said they had seen mostly older voters, but a few younger voters showed up. One official said younger voters "are probably on vacation."
An official at Fairfield Ludlowe recounted a story of one confused voter who went to the Democratic table and tried to sign in to vote. When his name was not on the list, officials called town hall and learned he was a registered Republican. The voter headed over to the Republican table and went ahead with his vote.
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