Ignored by the presidential campaigns as a sure thing for Joe Biden and a lost cause for Donald J. Trump, the election in Connecticut today turns on two questions: Will the expected Democratic wave be moderate or huge? And how will it shape the General Assembly?
Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., but about 25% of the state’s 2.3 million voters already had voted by midday Monday under the provisions of a temporary law that allows every voter to use an absentee ballot for the first time due to a suddenly resurgent COVID-19 pandemic.
Gov. Ned Lamont said public safety officials are monitoring social media for evidence of efforts to disrupt voting or stage protests of the results.
“It’s not going to happen in Connecticut,” Lamont said. “Connecticut is going to be careful. We’re going to respect the power of the vote and respect the decisions.”
State officials pledged to deliver a safe voting experience at the polls, followed by a transparent and accurate count — albeit one that may not not be completed until Wednesday due to the large number of absentee ballots.
“Vote confidently. Everybody who wants to vote in this state will have the opportunity to cast their vote, and everybody who has cast their vote will have their vote counted,” Attorney General William Tong said. “We’re going to see to that.”
Lamont, a Democrat at the mid-point of his first term, campaigned over the weekend to reinforce a get-out-the-vote message aimed at exploiting Trump’s low-approval rating in the state, his dismal showing here in 2016, and a reluctance by Republicans to campaign for his reelection.
“I’m feeling pretty ramped up, amped up,” Lamont said. “I think we want to send a signal the last four years have been un-American, what’s going on in Washington. And I want a loud repudiation of that.”
Republicans say voters can repudiate the president without punishing the down-ballot ticket.
“I don’t see a blue tsunami coming our way,” said Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, who is not seeking re-election.
A record 2.3 million voters are eligible to vote in today’s election. New registrations have favored Democrats, who now outnumber Republicans in Connecticut, 850,046 to 480,026. The biggest bloc are the unaffiliated voters, 939,679.
Animus towards the president drove an unusually high turnout in the 2018 mid-term contests, helping Democrats here make their first legislative gains in a decade and leaving them confident about expanding their current majorities of 22-14 in the Senate and 91-60 in the House.
Five of the six Republican state senators facing rematches with their 2018 opponents are defending seats in districts that Trump lost in 2016 — by wide margins in four cases.
At the top of the target list is Sen. George Logan, R-Ansonia. He won by just 85 votes in a recount over Jorge Cabrera, a Democrat of Hamden, in the 17th District. Trump lost by 9 points in the 17th, running strong in Naugatuck Valley towns like Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Derby and Naugatuck, while losing big in the New Haven suburbs of Hamden and Woodbridge.
Sen. Gennaro Bizzarro, R-New Britain, is seeking re-election in a district Trump lost by 23 points. Sen. Paul Formica, R-East Lyme, and Sen. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield, are in districts the president lost by 13 points and 14 points, respectively.
While Trump repeatedly has claimed baselessly that voting by absentee ballots is rife with fraud, election officials in Connecticut stress the security measures in place to ensure that no one casts an absentee ballot and then votes again at the polls. Only absentee ballots that arrive in today’s mail or are cast in drop boxes at a voter’s local town hall will be counted.
