Connecticut voters aren't recently accustomed to a primary that matters.
Donald Trump has swept the five Republican presidential primaries on Tuesday, including a win in Connecticut.
Hillary Clinton won the Democratic primary in Connecticut. She also won in Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. Bernie Sanders won in Rhode Island.
Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said voter turnout looked "higher than usual for a primary." As of late Tuesday afternoon, the statewide average for turnout was 26.57 percent, with all but 41 towns reporting, according to Merrill's office.
"I'm hearing that in some parts of the state -- like I heard in Bridgeport -- it was a little lighter than they expected," Merrill said on WNPR's Colin McEnroe Show. "I'm assuming the rain has something to do with that. But when I say that, I also realize that expectations were pretty high because we had such huge voter registration."
Connecticut voters aren't recently accustomed to a primary that matters. And at the polls, some expressed feeling a little torn between candidates.
In East Haven, Linda and Fred Hargraves, both in their 70s, came to their polling place to cast their ballots. But they aren't on the same side of party lines, and they don't love their choices.
"I'm really having trouble with this election, and I never have before," said Linda Hargraves. "I mean, I know I need to vote for a Democrat, but I'm not sure which one."
"I don't like either one of them," said Fred Hargraves. "On either side. I'm making a choice, and I'm not making a choice on the top two." He said he's a supporter of the Second Amendment.
The Democratic and Republican contests follow a spate of visits by four of the five major party candidates.
For the Democratic candidates, 55 of the state's 71 delegates will be up for grabs. They'll be distributed mostly on a proportional basis.
The Republicans are vying for 25 of the state's 28 delegates, which will be distributed proportionally.
And while voters can tell their delegates to pick a certain candidate, they can also vote for "uncommitted."
Here's what the Democratic primary ballot looks like in Westport pic.twitter.com/XUPlEGVh4c
— Where We Live (@wherewelive) April 26, 2016
"If you vote uncommitted," Merrill said, "it means you're not telling them they have to stick with any particular candidate in your party. When you go to that convention, [you're] wide open."
A recent Quinnipiac University Poll showed Donald Trump solidly leading among Republicans, and Hillary Clinton leading 51 to 42 percent among Democrats in a closer race with Bernie Sanders.
In the poll, Sanders leads among young voters, with 73 percent support among Democrats under the age of 35.
According to Merrill’s office, of newly-registered voters in 2016, people under 30 years old are the largest group, and most have registered as Democrats. She said there were 93,000 new voters since January, which she attributed in part to the new online voter registration system.
In a recent poll from Public Policy Polling, Clinton has a smaller edge over Sanders at 48 to 46 percent, mostly because of a 63 to 24 percent advantage among African Americans.
In New Haven on Tuesday afternoon, Mary Tedford said she supports Sanders. She likes his take on college tuition and health care. But if Sanders loses in the primary, she's not locked in to one candidate.
"I would certainly vote for Hillary, of course," she said. "I like her as well. It's just that he, to me, is less of a politician."
Alice Engbith said she supports Clinton. Speaking outside her polling place at Wilbur Cross High School, she said she especially values Clinton's experience as Secretary of State.
"The things going on globally right now are really important," she said. "I think she's established relationships, which will help her represent the United States in these conflicts."
In Middletown Tuesday morning, Kathy Pickett, 47, said she's voting for Clinton.
"I just feel she has experience, and has been in government a long time," she said. "I like some of Mr. Sanders’s policies, but I also feel we need someone who is more likely to lead the party in one direction, and is also a better odds for winning."
Bob Vinci in Middletown said he's voting for Sanders.
"We need change. The establishment needs to go," he said. "My family's been in business in Middletown for 75 years. There were several shops here. We employed people; we worked at these shops year round. Goodyear was famous in Middletown; hundreds of people worked here; Continental Can, Russell Manufacturing Company, EIS, Ernie I. Schwartz. One by one, they all left. Manufacturing is gone. The jobs that are left are McDonald’s jobs. That’s fine for the kids, [but] you can’t support a family. It’s a mess."
In Enfield, Steven Gabriel said he voted for Sanders.
"Things just aren't going good in government," he said, "and I just want my voice to be heard. I personally will not support Hillary in a general election. I'll just vote for someone else, or write them in, but I don't support Hillary."
John Weaver in Enfield voted for Clinton, though. He said he's noted a "drastic difference" among the Democrats and Republicans this election season.
"I suppose, in a good sense, it's generated a lot of enthusiasm -- a lot of excitement -- but it's been a little chaotic," he said.
Laura Chambers, a student at Gateway Community College in New Haven, came out to attend the Bernie Sanders rally on the New Haven Green Sunday. She said she likes Sanders’s views on issues important to women – including the right to an abortion, and the ability to breastfeed in public.
"He understands it’s a woman’s body; that shouldn’t be anybody else’s decision," Chambers said. "He understands that at the end of the day, the jobs we do have, that are supposed to help us live, it’s not helping. It’s not easy at all. It’s harder to find a job than it is to keep one."
Nicole Weiss of New Haven works at Yale and came out to support Sanders as well. "I'm hoping there can be lots of changes, but mostly I think just a movement of changing our government structure -- and making it more about the people, as opposed to making it about the interests of the one percent," she said.
Terrence Tomah was also at the rally, sitting on church steps near the New Haven Green. "I believe Bernie -- win or lose -- I think he represents the best in society, the best in this country," he said. "Which is really not doing so well. ...I want him to win because he represents us, and if I've got to suffer for it, so be it."
Rob Chiovoloni, owner of Café Beauregard in New Britain, calls himself a "fervent Democrat," and is a supporter of Hillary Clinton.
"Hillary will come into the office, assuming that she's elected -- and I hope she will be -- probably better prepared than any president in my lifetime," Chiovoloni said.
Chiovoloni was unhappy with the election results in 2000, when former Democratic Vice President Al Gore ran and didn’t win. Now he wants to see a candidate who can get elected.
"I like Bernie Sanders. I don't think he closed the deal," he said.
Former Connecticut gubernatorial and congressional candidate Joe Visconti said he’s been working as a volunteer to get Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump elected. Outside Trump’s campaign office in Berlin, Visconti – who ran as an independent for governor in 2014 – said he thinks Trump appeals to a lot of people because he seems to be looking out for them. And he said, Trump can show signs of material success.
"Basically, it’s jobs," Visconti said. "They believe he’s got the Midas touch, and they can see Donald Trump. The working class man can see Donald Trump’s wealth. It’s not like Mitt Romney, where you look and you see: ah, he was a venture capitalist; he did the Olympics, but what do you see?"
Visconti said he admires how Trump has prevailed during the campaign so far.
"I think he’s luckier than he is smart, and I think he’s a genius."
Sean Condon works for the state, and said he’s worried about the recent layoffs of state workers. He said he's voted Democratic in the past, but is a new supporter of Trump.
"With Connecticut's budget, the Democratic side is really wreaking havoc on state employees. ...We're looking at going Trump, and seeing how else that it could help Connecticut," Condon said, adding that Trump’s message about helping blue collar workers swayed him.
The latest Quinnipiac survey has Trump leading among likely Republican voters in the state, with John Kasich in second place.
Mary Lockwood in Middletown is a Kasich supporter, after originally supporting Marco Rubio, who dropped out of the race. "I think he's the best choice of the three," she said at her polling place. "I don't like some of Trump's rhetoric, and Cruz is way too conservative for me."
In Enfield, Emily Johnson said she voted for Ted Cruz.
"Where I work, it's a very public place, and a lot of people are voting for Trump just because of his radical views," she said. "They want something different. Unfortunately, they're not listening to the whole story about what each candidate is doing, and what their views are. And they're only cherry-picking what they want to hear, instead of seeing what everybody else is offering. I did vote for Cruz, just because he is one of the front-runners. He actually is winning in some primaries. And getting a vote to somebody who is not winning primaries is actually going to take away from the people who can get in front of Trump in order for him not to reach the actual election."
Diane Orson, Lori Mack, David DesRoches, Ryan Caron King, Jeff Cohen, Patrick Skahill, and NEPR's Jill Kaufman contributed to this report, which includes information from The Associated Press.
