Voters from Bridgeport’s 126th State House District have been slow to get to the polls this morning and election officials are not expecting things to pick up much.
Six candidates are running to replace Rep. Christopher Caruso, who took a job in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration.
Learn more about the candidates here.
At Thomas Hooker School, election worker Kevin Velez said there had only been two or three voters by 7:15 a.m. But he thought there could be a rush of voters from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and then again late afternoon before the polls close.
“You never know, last time we didn’t expect there to be a lot of people and look what happened,” he said.
But, he said, last time was a national and statewide election with important races across the board. Today, there is only one race and only five polling places open.
Velez said he doesn’t think many people know there even is an election. “I didn’t know there was an election until they called me to see if I wanted to work.”
An election worker at Hallen School said there had only be five or six voters there.
One voter at Thomas Hooker School, Jose Dacruz, said he came out to vote because he is worried about the way the state is headed.
Of the nine special elections today, Bridgeport is one with a lot of attention on it following the ballot shortage in November.
New Secretary of the State Denise Merrill has taken steps to ensure that all voters across the state have a chance to vote.
That means in Bridgeport, Registrar of Voters Santi Ayala has ordered 13,000 ballots, one for each person in the district, despite the fact a low turnout is expected.