This year was no more one of change in the state of Connecticut than it was in the White House: All five of Connecticut’s incumbent candidates for House of Representatives, and one for Senator, were re-elected on Tuesday.
In the Presidential election, 13,305 Middletown residents voted for Senator John Kerry, while President George W. Bush received 6,512 votes. Green party candidate David Cobb received 172 votes and petitioning candidate Ralph Nader took in 168 votes from Middletown voters.
Democrat Chris Todd beat Republican Jack Orchulli for the seat in the U.S. Senate. Todd received 944,081 votes and Orchulli received only 457,480 votes. Todd was also Middletown’s candidate of choice, pulling in 13,510 votes, almost three times the 4,209 votes Orchulli received from Middletown residents.
In District 1 of Connecticut, which includes Middletown, Hartford and other parts of central Connecticut, Democrat John Larson received 198,756 votes for Representative, triumphing over opponent Republican John Halstead, who received 73,581 votes. In District 2, Republican Rob Simmons was elected to serve another term in the House of Representatives by beating his democratic opponent 165,817 to 140,207 votes. In District 3, Republican Ricter Elser lost to incumbent Rosa DeLaura with 69,151 votes to DeLaura’s 200,578. In District 4, Republican Christopher Shays got re-elected for his seat in the House by beating Democrat Diane Farrell 152,464 to 138,310 votes. In District 5, incumbent Nancy Johnson beat Democrat Theresa Gerratana 168,253 to 107,402.
In the Senatorial election, incumbent Senator Chris Dodd (D) was elected to serve another term in the senate, beating Republican Jack Orchulli 944,081 to 457,480 votes. In the city of Middletown, Dodd received 13,510 votes and Orchulli received 4290 votes.
According to Secretary of the State of Connecticut Susan Bysiewicz, voter turnout this Election Day was approximately 79 percent. The Middletown Press published an article quoting Middletown’s Town Clerk as saying that the voter turnout in the city was near 79 percent, which is only a one percent increase from the 78 percent turnout Middletown had in the 2000 elections.
The number of submitted absentee ballots rose over 15 percent in Middletown from the last presidential election. Nearly 1,900 absentee ballots were mailed in this year, 42 of them coming from overseas. The city only had to reject 23 absentee ballots this year due to errors such as a voter circling more than one presidential candidate.
In the Middletown Press article, Hutton also said that some Wesleyan students who were looking to register in Middletown were not able to because they were not able to show proof of permanent residence, especially since the Wesleyan ID cards do not have a Middletown address on them.
Leave a Reply