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Democrat Bernie Sanders may have lost Connecticut to Hillary Clinton, but he won in Branford yesterday, possibly fueled by a high turnout of young voters, and a high turnout in general, averaging around 50 percent across the seven election districts.
As expected, Donald Trump carried all seven districts on the Republican side, as well as all the states holding primaries Tuesday.
Moderators were in and out the Registrar of Voters office on Kirkham Street all evening and the results weren’t final until around 10 p.m. Meanwhile primary results from Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Rhode Island were broadcast on NECN in BCTV’s lobby. Connecticut’s Democratic results were last to be announced.
Sanders won District 1 (291 to 248), District 2 (226 to 196), District 3 (206 to 205), District 4 (294 to 254), and District 6 (200 to 176). Hillary Clinton picked up District 5 (293 to 256) and District 7 (168 to 145). The overall total was 1,684 votes for Sanders, 1,626 for Clinton, 8 for Roque “Rocky” De La Fuente, an American businessman from San Diego, and 44 Uncommitted. There were 155 absentee ballots. A total of 3,362 votes were cast out of 6,461 registered Democrats.
Within the state Clinton won 52 percent of the votes to Sanders’ 47 percent. Sanders’ only win was Rhode Island, but he has vowed to stay in the race. Unlike Trump’s Republican rivals, Sanders’ losses have been by a close margin.
Trump carried Branford on the Republican side, with 1,009 votes, more than twice that of his nearest contender, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who received 419 votes; there were 230 for Sen. Ted Cruz, 11 for Ben Carson, and 25 Uncommitted. That made for a total of 1,694 votes out of 3,292 registered Republicans. There were 63 absentee ballots.
Connecticut has a closed primary, which means that residents must be registered Democrats or Republicans to vote. The deadline to change affiliation passed back in January, but Democrat Registrar of Voters Dan Hally said there were people who showed up to vote not realizing they weren’t registered with a party. “Just because you’ve voted Democrat (or Republican) that doesn’t mean you’re a registered Democrat,” he said.
Forty-two percent of Connecticut’s voters are unaffiliated, but according to Secretary of State Denise Merrill’s office nearly 22,000 unaffiliated voters changed their registration and switched to a major party in 2016. Close 14,000 of those people have switched from unaffiliated to Democrat and around 8,200 switched from being unaffiliated to Republican.
Assistant Registrar Nancy Lynch, who worked at District 4 and was at the Registrars’ office Tuesday night, said, “Young kids were coming in by the droves. They were darling!” She said that previously they were running buses from nursing homes.
Amber Reinwald, 22, and an electrical engineer, was voting for the first time, which elicited a round of applause from everyone in the District 3 polling location. She said she was a proud Bernie supporter because he has been “consistent.” She added that she has “an abiding respect for him … he stands on his own principles and he’s not swayed by money.”
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