Connecticut Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz and Secretary of the State Denise Merrill held a news conference today to remind voters, who are voting by absentee ballot or going to a polling location, of the state’s voter deadlines.
Merrill announced a very high voter turn-out, with two days left in which Connecticut voters can still obtain an absentee ballot.
“Using mostly these ballot boxes in every town, usually in front of town hall, we have had over 600,000 absentee ballots returned as of today. You can still drop them off in the ballot boxes right up until eight o’clock on election day, they will be counted but just later in the day,” Merrill said.
Merrill also announced a record high in voter registration for Connecticut, saying over 2.3 million residents have registered to vote in this election.
“Normally in a presidential election we get about 75% of the registered voters voting, I think it may go higher than that here in Connecticut. A lot of them are first time voters, a lot of them are young people, we have the highest number of 18 to 24-year-olds who have ever registered in a certain period of time between 2016 and now”, Merrill said.
Election officials say they have recruited over 10,000 volunteers to help enforce Covid-19 safety guidelines at polling locations. Social distancing and mask are mandatory.
Connecticut voters can return their completed ballot either in-person or at a drop box location by 8 p.m. local time on Nov. 3.