State Says Hartford Voter Turnout High; City Printing More Ballots

Turnout is high Hartford's contested Democratic primary for mayor -- so high that the city is running low on official ballots and is ordering more to be printed. But don't get excited just yet.

"They're seeing higher turnout in some of the districts than anticipated," said Av Harris, a spokesman for the office of the Secretary of the State. "And that means they've had to order additional ballots. There's plenty of time to have the ballots printed and delivered."

Harris said that his office was notified by Democratic Registrar Olga Vazquez about the high turnout. The city has about 34,000 registered Democrats, he said. Vazquez ordered about 11,400 ballots -- enough for a turnout of around 34 percent. Harris said that would be "a pretty high turnout for a municipal primary."

By mid-day, political watchers were pointing to high turnout numbers in some parts of the city -- especially the West End, which borders West Hartford.

"I'm pretty much hearing the West End is high -- more high than usual," Segarra said, standing outside of a polling place at Burns Elementary School. "The north is somewhat low. And the south seems to be more active."

Meanwhile, Bronin and Segarra were crisscrossing the city. 

Bronin had previously flooded mailboxes with flyers, while Segarra didn't send one. An example of a piece of Bronin campaign mail is below.

Credit Heather Brandon / WNPR

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WNPR

Segarra said he saved his money for primary day get-out-the-vote efforts.

While both men said they expected to win, only one is on the November ballot: Segarra. He has previously said that he plans to run in November if he doesn't win the primary. On Wednesday, the mayor said his gut tells him he'd run, but he'd have to do some analysis before he decides for sure.