MONROE, CT — Voters are steadily going to the polls in Monroe, Shelton, Stratford and Seymour this Tuesday to express support for their candidate in a special election for Connecticut’s 21st Senatorial District seat, vacated by longtime Republican legislator Kevin Kelly’s resignation.
State Rep. Jason Perillo, R-Shelton, is vying to keep the district red, while Stratford Town Councilman Tony Afriyie, a Democrat, tries to break the Republican Party’s streak of representing the district since 1967.
In Monroe, the polls will be open in the former St. Jude School building, 707 Monroe Turnpike, until 8 p.m. This is only for voters in districts 1 (Fawn Hollow) and 4 (Masuk).
Perillo greeted voters in front of Shelton Intermediate School Tuesday afternoon.
“At this point the work that can be done has been done,” Perillo said of his campaign. “I know that we have worked hard and certainly my opponent has worked hard and we’ll see what happens tonight.”
Several people stopped to talk to Perillo, express their support and shake his hand.
“Everybody has been very positive and, even the folks who didn’t vote for me were nice to me, so I’ll call that a win,” Perillo said with a smile.
Afriyie stood by his campaign sign at Long Hill Elementary School.
“I feel like me and my team , we put our best foot forward with door knocking, phone banking and meet and greets to just let voters know that they have a young candidate who’s given back to the community and wants to serve them,” Afriyie said.
A couple walked through the parking lot to cast their votes.
“You are getting our vote,” the man called out, as he and his wife waved at Afriyie.
“Thank you,” Afriyie said with smile. “I really appreciate it.”
He said his interactions with voters have been positive throughout the day.
“Monroe was very kind to me this morning,” Afriyie said. “People walked up to me to shake my hand and told me I’m their candidate and they wished me the best.”
New tabulators
Election volunteers assisted voters at the polls inside the former St. Jude School building in Monroe Tuesday morning. Rather than the gym, the election is being held in a room off the first floor hallway.
“This setup has worked well,” said Frank Dutches, the moderator. “This is a limited turnout.”
He said some voters did not realize the special election is only for those registered in districts 1 and 4.
“Turnout is moderate,” Dutches said. “We had about 500 early voting and a limited number of absentee ballots. It’s our first time using the new tabulators. They’re much more intuitive than the older machines. If there is an error, it kicks the ballot back out and it tells you what the error is.”
When a ballot is successfully fed into the tabulator, the screen says: “Thank you for voting.”
“We had a glitch this morning,” Dutches said. “A tabulator and a backup unit for Fawn Hollow, District 1, wasn’t accepting ballots. Then we immediately put the backup in place. No votes were missed.”
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