Connecticut has become one of the last holdout states to allow early in-person voting ahead of the state’s presidential primary on Tuesday.
Saturday was the last day for early voting before Tuesday, which was marked by low turnout.
Only 13,476 voters out of both Democrats and Republicans in the state came out to cast an early ballot. There are around 1.2 million voters registered for both parties in the state.
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Voters passed a constitutional amendment in 2022 by 60% for the initiative, and the Senate last year approved a bill to allow 14 days of early voting for the general election.
"This is a historic moment for Connecticut," Stephanie Thomas, Secretary of the State, said in a statement after early voting began last Tuesday. "We now have so many more opportunities for people to go out and vote."
She added, "We asked voters to help us test the system and make their voices heard, and voters of Connecticut answered the call."
The state has strict requirements to be eligible to vote by absentee ballot.
Some Republicans had been concerned about voter security connected to early voting.
But Peggy Roberts, the Republican registrar of voters in Stonington, said the rollout has been "organized and secure."
Voters "like the fact that they’re not having to stand in line," she said. "In every town there’s a few people who think that it’s easy to cheat and they’re seeing that it’s not easy to cheat. It’s very organized and secure."
When a voter casts an early ballot in the state, they’re immediately marked as having voted in the Centralized Voter Registration System to prevent cheating.
Roberts added that looking up voters in the computer database has been time-consuming and may need to be streamlined before the general election.
Republican voter JoLynn Brochu, who voted early, worried there’s "Too much opportunity for cheating," with the new system, but chose to do it anyway because, "I know Democrats take that opportunity at a much higher rate than Republicans do. So I think it’s important for Republicans to start doing the same thing."
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Four states — Alabama, Delaware, Mississippi and New Hampshire — still don’t allow early voting. Delaware previously allowed early voting, but it was ruled unconstitutional in February.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
