Incumbents Prevail At The Polls

A roster of familiar names all came out on top at the local polls on Election Day with Democrat US Senator Chris Dodd, Republican Congresswoman Nancy Johnson, Republican State Senator John McKinney, and GOP State Representatives Julia Wasserman and DebraLee Hovey all posting decisive victories.

As the polls in Newtown closed at 8 pm on Tuesday, workers at the four local district polling centers breathed a collective sigh of relief, although many felt by late afternoon that they were taking part in a historical event. According to Newtown First Selectman Herb Rosenthal, the total number of votes cast by machine in the presidential election of 2000 was surpassed by 5 pm.

“At 5 pm we had registered 11,160 votes against the closing number of 11,089 in the election of 2000,” he told The Bee. With nearly 70 percent of Newtown registered voters casting their ballots by machine as of 5 pm, the town’s Registrars of Voters were considering the possibility that once all absentee and machine votes were counted, the turnout would reach or top 90 percent.

But an uncharacteristic slowdown of voters after the dinner hour contributed to the final percentage coming in at just over 86 percent of the 16,598 registered voters in town. In a surprise development, unregistered walk-ins looking for presidential ballots were about half the number that turned out in 2000, with only 230 casting their top of ticket votes by paper ballot.

Absentee ballots logged in at 1,012 and there were 15 overseas ballots cast.

Registrar of Voters LeReine Frampton said districts were calling in with more than 1,000 votes an hour between 6 am and 2 pm when the flow of voters began diminishing to a final trickle. At Head O’ Meadow School, poll supervisor Michael Lucas, Jr, counted down the last few moments before locking the door, even though the two final voters of the day had left the building by 7:45 pm.

Business at the polls did not transpire without a few glitches, however. While The Bee was monitoring activities in the Registrars Office late in the afternoon, workers there who were taking unregistered voters’ presidential ballots were awaiting a person who called in and became irate when he was told he could not vote in Newtown. Ms Frampton said the person’s identification apparently showed a Newtown address, even though motor vehicle records proved he resided in another community.

At one point early in the morning, a polling engineer was working to unstick a handle on one of the voting machines at Reed School. A similar incident disabled a mechanical voting machine at Newtown Middle School for about a half-hour later in the day.

Other problems at Reed School developed as waves of voters arrived throughout the morning to find parking places reserved for voters were occupied by teachers and school personnel attending workshops in the building. Numerous complaints were registered by poll workers there who said the school staffers were apparently oblivious to requests they received Monday to park in the rear of the building.

One worker said the shortage of spots for voters forced dozens of voters to park their vehicles on Wasserman Way or on the Fairfield Hills property and walk the extended distance to the cafeteria until the teachers’ vehicles were finally moved.

“I’m just glad it isn’t pouring rain,” one worker was overheard saying to a disgruntled voter.

Town Clerk Cynthia Simon delivered these final totals to The Bee.

 

For President:

Bush and Cheney (R) – 7,739

Kerry and Edwards (D) – 6,540

Cobb and Lamarche – 45

Peroutka and Baldwin – 10

Badnarik and Campagna – 28

Nader and Camejo – 103

For US Senator:

Jack Orchulli (R) – 5,469

Chris Dodd (D) – 7,568

Timothy Knibbs – 90

Leonard Rasch – 81

For US Representative:

Nancy Johnson (R) – 8,573

Theresa Gerratana (D) – 4,294

Wildey J. Moore – 91

Fernando Ramirez – 109

For State Senator:

John McKinney (R) – 8,201

Morgan Graham (D) – 4,323

For State Representative:

Julia Wasserman (R) (I) – 8,933

Colin Cascia – 477

DebraLee Hovey (R) – 968

Adam Feldman (D) – 541

Newtown Registrars of Voters:

Karin Aurelia (R) – 7,097

LeReine Frampton (D) – 5,027