GREENWICH — Polling places will be open in Connecticut from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday — and they may be crowded with high voter turnout expected in Greenwich.
The town saw a surge of nearly 4,000 new registered voters this year.
“We’ve far exceeded the number of registered voters we had in 2016,” town Republican Registrar of Voters Fred DeCaro III said.
As of Friday, the number of registered voters in town totaled 41,467, with 15,832 registered as unaffiliated, 12,569 as Republicans and 12,288 as Democrats, according to the registrars. In 2019, the total number of registered voters came to 37,482, with 14,031 unaffiliated, 12,359 Republicans and 10,397 Democrats.
The ballot in Greenwich will include the races for president, Congress, the state legislature and registrar of voters. For a sample ballot, visit https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/SOTS/ElectionServices/2020-November-Election-Ballots/Greenwich.pdf.
Absentee ballots will be collected from the drop boxes at the police headquarters and inside and outside Town Hall until the polls close.
If you are not registered to vote, Election Day registration is allowed in Connecticut. Anyone who lives in town but is not registered should go to Town Hall.
Registrars said they expect the turnout to exceed the 82.93 percent voter participation in town in 2016.
“People may need to be a bit more patient than usual,” Democratic Registrar of Voters Mary Hegarty said. “We pride ourselves on having polling places that operate extremely efficiently — and we want to have that again for this election. But because of the requirements to keep the poll workers distanced, the process will be a little more spread out and there will be lines because the turnout will be very high. People will need to bring their patient side.”
To quicken the process, DeCaro said voters can bring their own pens and can use any hard surface, such as a clipboard, if they do not want to wait for privacy booths.
Due to the coronavirus, masks will be required and the common areas will be cleaned throughout the day. Due to social distancing, lines could be long.
But even with the higher voter registration, many voted by absentee ballot due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Town Clerk’s Office, a total of 13,885 voters had returned absentee ballots in town as of Friday from the 16,783 voters who requested them.
For voters who want to cast their ballots in person, here are the 12 polling places in Greenwich:
District 1 — Julian Curtiss School
District 2 — Greenwich Town Hall
District 3 — Western Middle School
District 4 — New Lebanon School
District 5 — Riverside School
District 6 — Old Greenwich School
District 7 — Greenwich High School
District 8 — Central Middle School
District 9 — Bendheim Western Greenwich Civic Center
District 10 — Glenville School
District 11 — North Street School
District 12 — North Mianus School
To verify your voter registration and polling place, visit www.greenwichct.gov. For information on polling places, visit https://www.greenwichct.gov/611/Voting-Hours-Locations.
kborsuk@greenwichtime.com