Absentee ballot activity is dramatically below last year’s Democratic mayoral cycle that broke records and dispatched national attention from videos showcasing operatives placing ballots into designated drop boxes.
Generally a lot more is on the line during municipal primary events featuring mayor, City Council and school board seats.
Still, this is quite a disparity with just one week until August 13 walk-in vote with early voting underway. And at this late juncture, it’s really more a question of how many more absentees come in versus new requests for applications.
According to Tuesday’s absentee ballot report from the Town Clerk’s Office, most of the action comes from Bridgeport’s 23rd Senatorial, representing about two thirds of the city, where incumbent freshman Herron Gaston faces a primary from City Councilman Ernie Newton. Within that senatorial a heated primary buzzes between long-term State Rep. Andre Baker and City Councilwoman Eneida Martinez in the 124th State House District covering the Dunbar, Harding, JFK and Beardsley precincts.
Of the 1,308 requests for applications in the 23rd Senatorial, 556 ballots have been returned. A good chunk of what remains will come in the final days, but likely only half of what came in from last September’s primary.
The 23rd Senatorial also includes western Stratford.
On the other side of the city, a four-way primary is at stake to replace a retiring Marilyn Moore in the 22nd Senatorial between City Councilman Scott Burns, ex councilman Tyler Mack, former Mayor Bill Finch and law school professor Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox. The district also includes Trumbull and Monroe.
In the Bridgeport portion of the district, slightly less than half of the 313 requests for absentee ballots have been returned, a representative amount from North End senior buildings under supervised balloting. That’s when election officials, based on an amount of requests for absentees, set up shop to assist the process.
The lower half of the district, particularly the West Side and West End that traditionally sees lots of absentee requests, has been quiet.
Some absentee operatives are clearly skittish given last year’s controversy.
See below the absentee reports from the 22nd, 23rd districts as well as a separate file for Republicans citywide with little activity for primaries for Congress and U.S. Senate.
AUG 6 2024 AB REPORT 22nd DEM (1) (1)
AUG 6 2024 AB REPORT 23rd DEM (1)
AUG 6 2024 AB REPORT REPUBLICAN (2) (1)
