Anemic turnout

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Connecticut, where “summer” is often used as a verb, is sleeping in for this exercise in democracy.

Primary day is off to a sluggish start in terms of turnout across much of the state, with election officials reporting anemic totals.

In Greenwich, the hometown of Tom Foley, the favorite to repeat as the GOP nominee for governor, less than 5 percent of the town’s 12,134 registered Republicans had cast ballots as of 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to real time turnout numbers from the registrar of voters.

As of 12:15 p.m., the turnout crept up to 7.36 percent in Greenwich.

Turnout was slightly higher in Fairfield, the hometown of state Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, Foley’s primary rival, with 8.85 percent of registered Republicans voting as of noon, the registrar’s office reported to Hearst Connecticut Media.

Using the previous two statewide primaries as a benchmark, including Foley’s 2010 bruising victory over rival Michael Fedele with 30 percent participation, state election officials were expecting turnout to be light.

In 2006, a record 43 percent of Democrats turned out for the party’s U.S. Senate primary, purging incumbent Joe Lieberman in favor of Greenwich businessman and antiwar candidate Ned Lamont as their nominee. Lieberman won the general election as a third-party candidate, however.

Neil Vigdor