Connecticut Secretary of the State Denise Merrill speaks during a webinar on voting Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020 hosted by Fairfield County's Community Foundation. On Election Day, Merrill announced few problems reported to her office by midday and a voter turnout of 75 percent across the state by noon.

Connecticut Secretary of the State Denise Merrill speaks during a webinar on voting Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020 hosted by Fairfield County's Community Foundation. On Election Day, Merrill announced few problems

Photo: John Breunig /Hearst Connecticut Media /

Connecticut Secretary of the State Denise Merrill speaks during a webinar on voting Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020 hosted by Fairfield County's Community Foundation. On Election Day, Merrill announced few problems reported to her office by midday and a voter turnout of 75 percent across the state by noon.

Connecticut Secretary of the State Denise Merrill speaks during a webinar on voting Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020 hosted by Fairfield County's Community Foundation. On Election Day, Merrill announced few problems

Nobody is apathetic this year: CT turnout at 50 percent by noon

Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said in a noontime news conference in West Hartford that turnout is already 50 percent, about equal to the states voting in the 2016 presidential race.

Twenty five percent are absentee ballots and the rest are people who crowded the states nearly 800 polling places since the predawn.

She said that the more than 2.3 million registered voters is a couple hundred thousand more than usual, and its the largest pool of electors the state has had heading into an election.

There are quite a few people here to vote, she said outside the Charter Oak International Academy. We are hearing all across the state a really, really large turnout.

So clearly people are voting and voting in big numbers. We have had very few problems that have been reported to us. I think its wonderful. I can throw away all those speeches I used to make about the apathy of voters because nobody is apathetic this year thats for sure.

Merrill said that the only problems that have been reported were a few power outages caused by the high winds that were quickly restored. In New London there was a problem with some voters getting the wrong ballots for their state House of Representative districts, and local officials were contacting voters to give them a chance to vote for the correct candidates.

I think these were absentee ballots that went out and there were two districts that got mixed up for a group of voters, but we can rectify, so were going to allow them to vote for all the offices except for the one thats in question, she said. And that would be two different state rep districts, and they are working right now on calling them all, finding out who they are and allowing them to vote on just that office, but their vote will count for everything else.

Asked to describe the turnout, she said: This is one of these deals where you have to figure out what human behavior is going to be. I think a lot of people asked for absentee ballots thinking, Well, Ill keep them and decide at the last minute if I want to go in person, because we did allow them that option. So it just shows, I guess, when you give people options, you dont know exactly which one they are going to take.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated 75 percent of voters in Connecticut had voted by noon, including the 25 percent who cast absentee ballot. The actual turnout was 50 percent, including the absentees.

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'Nobody is apathetic this year': CT turnout at 50 percent by noon - The Advocate