Democrats outnumber GOP more than 2-1

As of this morning, there are 34,142 registered voters in Bristol.

Among them are 14,136 Democrats (41.4 percent), 5,515 Republicans (16.2 percent), 14,422 unaffiliated (42.2 percent) and 69 registered with small parties such as Connecticut for Lieberman (<0.1>).

*******

Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Near record number of voters face many choices Tuesday

 With nearly as many voters its rolls as ever before, Bristol may see busier polling places than it has in decades.

But election officials, who have been figuring out how to deal with the crush for months, anticipate few problems at the polls Tuesday.

“We spent a lot of time planning for this,” said Bob Badal, the Democratic registrar.

There are 34,708 registered voters this year in Bristol, more than 84 percent of them Democrats or independents. Republicans trail badly.

Still, city GOP chairman T.J. Barnes said that his party has the potential to do well in Bristol this year, with its emphasis on keeping state Rep. Bill Hamzy in office and getting newcomer Jill Fitzgerald to join him.

Voters will get the last word on a number of political contests, from the presidential slugfest between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain on down to uncontested local races.

They’ll also decide whether to change Bristol’s charter to create a chief operating officer as well as four non-controversial charter change questions. There’s also a hotly debated state issue on the ballot about whether to require a constitutional convention.

The 1^st District congressional race features U.S. Rep. John Larson, an East Hartford Democrat, and two long-shots, Republican Joe Visconti of West Hartford and Green Party champion Stephen Fournier of Hartford.

The most watched race among Bristol’s political insiders is in 77^th District.

Fitzgerald is locked in what appears to be a tight race there against Democrat Chris Wright  in northeastern Bristol. The two are vying to succeed state Rep. Ron Burns, a Republican who opted not to seek re-election after a single term in Hartford.

Hamzy is scrambling to fend off Democrat Jacqui Denski in the 78^th District, which includes Chippens Hill.

In the 79^th District, state Rep. Frank Nicastro is facing a token challenger, Republican David L. Norton, who stepped in at the last minute to replace Derek Jerome, who apparently committed suicide last month to escape financial woes.

In the 22^nd District, which includes fewer than 1,000 voters in the Forestville section of town, state Rep. Betty Boukus, a Plainville Democrat, is facing a challenge from Republican Scott Saunders.

State Sen. Tom Colapietro, a Bristol Democrat who has represented the 31^st District since 1992, doesn’t have an opponent for the first time in his career. The district includes Plainville, Plymouth and part of Harwinton as well as Bristol.

To deal with the many voters expected to show up at the polls, Badal said there are going to be two check-in lines for voters at the precincts.

Moderators at each precinct have also worked up floor plans to speed people through as quickly as possible, Badal and Republican Registrar Ellie Klapatch said.

Klapatch said that it will help if voters are prepared to show identification at the check-in tables.

She also said that the machines and ballots are ready to go.

“Everything’s running smooth,” said Klapatch, who’s been supervising elections in Bristol since 1971.

The precincts with the most voters this year are 79A, 78A, 79B, 79C and 77A, the registrars said. All of them have more than 4,000 registered voters, Badal and Klapatch said, so voters there should give themselves some extra time.

The polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Polling Places for the Election will be as follows:

Council District One
77A– Edgewood School – 345 Mix Street
77B – Northeast School - 530 Stevens Street
77C – Mountain View School – 71 Vera Road

Council District Two
78A – Chippens Hill Middle School – 551 Peacedale St.
78B – Clara T. O’Connell School – 120 Park Street
79A – South Side School – Tuttle Road

Council District Three
79B – American Legion – 22 Hooker Court
79C – Greene Hills School – 718 Pine Street
77D & 22 - Stafford School – 212 Louisiana Avenue

Note: An earlier version of this entry provided a bigger number for the registered voters tally because of an error at the registrars' office. It is now correct.

*******
Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

A surge in voter registration may help Clinton

A last-minute surge in voter registration is swelling the ranks of Democratic voters and perhaps bolstering U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton’s odds of winning Tuesday’s presidential primary in Connecticut.
As many as 22 people an hour have been signing up to vote in the primary, most of them independents who are joining the ranks of the Democrats in order to vote in the primary, city election officials said.
Cathy Myers filled in the necessary form Wednesday to switch to the Democrats from her longtime unaffiliated status.
“I didn’t realize I was losing out” before, she said, by letting party regulars pick the candidates for the general election.
This time around, though, she wanted her support for Clinton to count.
“Us women are sleepers,” Myers said. “We’re coming out of the closet” to help put a woman in the White House, she added.
“It’s time for a woman to be president,” said Yvette Badger, who was also changing her registration Wednesday so she could vote for Clinton on Tuesday.
Registrars Ellie Klapatch and Bob Badal said that some of those coming in are also backing Democrat Barack Obama or one of the Republican hopefuls, particularly U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
As of mid-day Wednesday, there were nearly 300 more people on the voting rolls than there were on Election Day in November – and Democratic ranks in the city had climbed well over 13,000 voters for the first time in years.
Democrats claimed the allegiance of 41 percent of the 31,940 voters on the ranks Wednesday, compared to 17 percent for the GOP, a number that hasn’t changed much for many years.
In the early 1980s, more than half the registered voters in town were Democrats, but by the last presidential election in 2004, the party claimed the allegiance of only 39.5 percent of the city’s electorate. Democrats gained slightly before the 2006 congressional elections, but the positive trend has accelerated in recent months.
Nora Anderson, the secretary in the registrar’s office, said she’s been stunned at the pace of registration. She said about 60 percent of those coming in are women.
Badal, the Democratic registrar, said “a lot of people want to be part of the process.”
Badal said he has seen mostly young and middle age voters signing up to vote in the primary, with more women than men among them. He said, though, he can’t be sure whether Obama or Clinton will benefit most from the registration surge.
The only thing he’s sure about is that voting in the primary is likely to be brisk. Badal said he’s already ordered more ballots twice to make sure he doesn’t run out Tuesday.
Klapatch, the GOP registrar, said that Democrats and Republicans seem especially enthusiastic about the candidates this year.
Badal said he wouldn’t be surprised if primary turnout exceeds 50 percent on the Democratic side, particularly if forecasts for relatively mild temperatures prove accurate.
Klapatch said that concern about the large numbers who might come to the polls has convinced school officials and the police to put police officers or hired security at every polling place in the city’s schools during school hours.
The city is paying about $3,000 for the extra security, Klapatch said, which is a first.
Voters will fill in special paper ballots – salmon-colored for the Democrats and white for the Republicans – which will be counted by a machine.
The ballots contain the names of a number of candidates who are no longer in the race, but all of the significant remaining contenders are among the names on the ballots.
The polls will be open Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The in-person deadline for registering or affiliating with a political party in order to vote is noon on Monday, February 4. Mail-in registrations must be postmarked by Thursday to qualify.

*******
Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Democratic ranks rising in Bristol

With a hotly contested mayoral primary on tap, the city’s Democratic Party ranks are growing quickly.
Heading into the primary, there are several hundred newly registered Democrats on the rolls.
The party claims the allegiance of 40.7 percent of the city’s 31,622 registered voters, an increase of more than 3 percent since last November.
"An awful lot" of new voters have poured into the registrar’s office to sign up so they could vote in Tuesday’s primary, said Bob Badal, the Democratic registrar.
Nominee Ellen Zoppo and challenger Art Ward, both of them veteran city councilors, are locked in a hard-fought battle to claim the party’s mayoral line in the Nov. 6 general election.
If Zoppo wins, Ward will remain on the general election ballot as an independent, creating a three-way race that includes Republican Ken Johnson. If Ward wins, he would drop the independent bid and face off against Johnson alone.
Republican Registrar Ellie Klapatch said she’s seen a number of unaffiliated voters switch to the Democrats in recent weeks so they could cast a vote in the primary.
The GOP’s ranks have fallen off slightly since last fall. The party now has 16.8 percent of registered voters, down slightly from the 17 percent it had a year ago.
Unaffiliated voters, who cannot vote in primaries, have made up a majority of city voters since 2004. There is only one precinct in town where Democrats still outnumber independents: 77B, which votes at Northeast Middle School.
All in all, there are 13,479 unaffiliated voters, 12,797 Democrats and 5,302 Republicans. There are 44 voters who are signed up with a minority party.
Democratic voters made up more than half the electorate in Bristol a quarter century ago but their ranks dwindled steadily through the years until they hit bottom in 2004 when they had 39.5 percent of registered voters.
Last year, though, the party ranks began climbing again. The primary has merely accelerated the trend.


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