By: Maria Moore
Only 249 out of the town’s 1320 registered Republicans turned out to vote in yesterday’s Republican Presidential Primary. This low turnout held true around the state, with only 59,699 votes cast in the primary out of the total 415,725 active Republican voters in Connecticut. New Hartford’s 18.9% turnout rate was better than the statewide average of 14.4%. A quick glance at other towns’ turnout figures finds Bridgeport had the lowest turnout with 7.7%, and Wethersfield had the highest turnout with 41.1%.
Out of the 249 votes cast in New Hartford, 138 went to Mitt Romney. Statewide, Romney received 67.5% of the total votes cast and he received all of the 28 Connecticut delegates.
This is how the 249 New Hartford votes broke down:
Mitt Romney on April 24, 2012
138: Mitt Romney
59: Ron Paul
30: Newt Gingrich
20: Rick Santorum
2: Uncommitted
Remarking on the low Republican turnout in town, our reporter and Town Clerk Donna LaPlante both agreed that the state’s Republican Presidential Primary is held too late in the process: the first primary was held in Iowa on January 3, with 7 candidates in the running. By the time Connecticut held its primary yesterday, Tuesday, April 24, three candidates had dropped out of the race and Mitt Romney had a commanding lead in the race for the Republican Presidential nomination. No wonder many voters in New Hartford and around the state didn’t head for the polls on Tuesday.
New Hartford’s two polling places were open for the Republican Presidential Primary, with District 1 voting at Town Hall and District 2 voting at the South End Fire House. Both locations were open from 6 a.m. through 8 p.m.
Download a copy of the Presidential Preference Primary Results and Turnout Statistics from the Secretary of State’s website.
To learn more about Mitt Romney visit www.mittromney.com.
For election information in New Hartford visit the Election section of the Town of New Hartford website.
The Senior Center at Town Hall is one of the two polling places that were open on Tuesday, April 24 for the Republican Presidential primary. Photo: NewHartfordPlus archives
