Turnout in Bristol is way up from 2008 (updated 5:50)

This post will be updated as the day goes along to reflect the latest available data.

Update after the 5 p.m. count
The pace of voting in Bristol remains high.
More than half of the city's registered voters had cast a ballot by 5 p.m.
According to figures from the registrar's office, 51.2 percent of the city's 34,791 registered voters had passed through the polls by 5 p.m.
The nearly 18,000 voters topped the 2008 presidential race tally by 369 for the same time, continuing the trend seen all day.


Update after the 10 a.m. count
Voting is still surging in Bristol today.
As of 10 a.m., 23.3 percent of the city's 34,791 registered voters had already cast a ballot.
That is 421 more voters this year than at the same time in 2008, when registration was only slightly lower.
In total, 8,123 people have voted at the city's nine polling places today, as of 10 a.m., a pace that would ultimately lead to more than a thousand extra voters by the end of the day compared to what we saw four years ago.
So much for the cynics who said Americans are sick of this election and want no part of it.
The simple truth, proven every time someone fills in the bubbles on their ballot, is that at least in Bristol, voting is still cherished.
Who they're voting for, though, won't be known until after the polls close at 8 p.m.

Update after the 7 a.m. count

Four years ago, in the presidential contest that put President Barack Obama in the White House, 6 percent of Bristol voters had traipsed to the polls in the first hour of the day.

That year, 2,214 voters had cast a ballot in Bristol by 7 a.m.

Now for the surprise; in the first hour of voting this year in Bristol, turnout was nearly 15 percent HIGHER. By 7 a.m., 6.9 percent of the city's electorate had already filled in their bubbles and slid their ballots into the counting machines in the city's nine polling places.

That translated to 2,416 voters in the first hour -- 202 more than in 2008 even though the overall registration has risen only slightly during the past four years.

If you have any pictures related to voting today, send them along or bring them to my attention!

Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Turnout down sharply in Bristol

Four years ago, during the U.S. Senate race that installed Joe Lieberman in the Senate as an independent, 44 percent of the city's electorate had cast a ballot by 5 p.m.
Today, with a whole range of hot races on the ballot, just 40 percent of the city's registered voters had shown up by 5 p.m.
A 10 percent drop since the last midterm election is a pretty sharp decline and makes it virtually certain that Bristol will come nowhere near the 60 percent turnout that Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz predicted statewide.
What it means, however, is less certain.
In general, insiders said that Republicans appear to be hyped up to vote this time around so they are perhaps more likely to turn out.
Democrats and independents may be sitting this one out, turned off by negative advertising and disgusted by the failure of both parties to fix the economy in the wake of 2008's financial collapse.
Polling across the country today clearly shows that the economy is the number one issue on voters' minds -- and the betting is that in many places, incumbent Democrats are going to pay a heavy price for the economy's failings.
What will happen in Bristol, however, could be entirely different.
We won't know until the votes are counted in a few hours.
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Turnout down from 2006

During the last midterm election in Bristol -- featuring the hotly contested reelection fight by Sen. Joe Lieberman in 2006 -- some 27.1 percent of registered voters had turned out at the polls by noon.
This year, only 24 percent had voted by noon, despite the nice weather.
But there are some 2,000 more registered voters this year than in 2006 so the total number of voters casting a ballot by noon is down only a little from 2006's level.
The registrar's office reports that voting so far today has been "smooth as butter," which is exactly what everyone hopes for.
There have been on reports of any problems at the polls.
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Turnout in Bristol on Tuesday

As Republican mayoral candidate Ken Johnson aptly put it, turnout at the polls Tuesday was "very poor."
Of the 31,777 eligible voters, only 36.3 percent showed up to cast a ballot. That means a mere 11,527 turned up at the polls, leaving nearly 20,000 potential votes uncast.
Two years ago, 38.4 percent of the voters showed up for the mayoral race between Republican William Stortz and Democratic incumbent Gerard Couture.
To be fair, there are only a few towns in the state where more than half the registered voters bother to turn out for municipal races.
Yesterday, even the hotly contested mayoral race in New Britain could only draw 30 percent of voters there to the polls.
In general, the cities and towns that have the worst turnout are also the poorest, most wretched places. So getting a good turnout is one indication that a municipality has the sort of active, interest citizenry that everybody purports to want.
So it's disturbing that Bristol can't muster more voters on Election Day.
Johnson is absolutely right about that.

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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Turnout down, but rising

Two years ago, during the hard-fought mayoral race between Republican William Stortz and Democrat Gerard Couture, 38.4 percent of the city's registered voters showed up at the polls.
This time around, turnout appears likely to be lower.
As of 1 p.m., when the rain finally began to stop, turnout stood at 16.8 percent overall. That compares to 19.7 percent overall at the same time in 2005.
Republican Registrar Ellie Klapatch said that turnout has been "rather slow" this year, but it appeared to be picking up as the sun started coming out early in the afternoon.
At the American Legion precinct, Republican City Council candidate Bob Merrick and Democrat Frank Nicastro, an incumbent, stood outside looking to pick up a few extra votes as voters headed in.
Merrick said that he received a "very positive" response from voters, much like he got going door-to-door during the campaign.
"People are positive about the city," Merrick said. "People love Bristol."
Nicastro said that too many people badmouth Bristol. "They don't realize we have a great city," Nicastro said.
So far, there haven't been any troubles with the new voting machines, officials said.
State Sen. Tom Colapietro, a Bristol Democrat, said he liked the new voting system. It's easy, he said.
Klapatch said there haven't been any problems with the machines.
"People seem to be doing fine with the machines," Klapatch said.

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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com