UPDATE (November 9, 2022; 1:45 pm): This report has been updated to correct number of eligible Newtown voters, which was incorrectly reported to The Newtown Bee on election documents provided by the Newtown Registrar's Office.

The story was further updated at 9:15 am on November 10 with details about the US House 5th District race.

An additional update of multiple ballot tallies was filed at 3:30 pm on November 10 after The Bee received an amended Head Moderator's report from the Newtown Registrar's Office.

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With a plethora of decisions before them, Newtown electors voted to keep the Board of Finance, approved the rest of the proposed Town Charter revisions, came out in favor of early voting, and leaned slightly Republican in other tallies across a number of seats on the local ballot.

Statewide, as polls generally indicated, Democrats racked up victories from the governor’s office to the US Senate, and across a raft of statewide offices including Comptroller, Treasurer, Attorney General, and Secretary of the State. Connecticut voters also approved a Constitutional question authorizing an early voting amendment.

In Newtown, 13,120 of the community’s 19,371 registered voters (including 96 who qualified to register on Election Day) cast ballots — a nearly 68% turnout (67.7%). The Town Clerks Office accepted 1,473 absentee ballots of which 28 were rejected, and there were three Overseas Ballots accepted.

Newtown’s ballot also included three questions. The first, a statewide Constitutional question on whether to approve early voting in future elections received 7,251 yes votes versus 5,064 voting no. According to reports, the measure passed handily statewide by almost a 20 point margin.

A local Charter question asking if voters wished to eliminate the Board of Finance saw 3,161 favoring and 7,678 against, meaning the Board of Finance will continue to exist as it is currently framed in the local constitutional document. However, a second local Charter question asking voters to approve a raft of other procedural revisions was approved on a slim margin, 5,291 yes to 4,793 no.

State Rep Mitch Bolinsky, the Republican 106th District incumbent running unopposed, received 7,632 votes.

In Newtown’s section of the State House District 107 race, local voters favored Republican Marty Foncello, with 496 votes, a slight lead over Democrat Phoebe Holmes, who received 474 votes. Foncello reportedly captured the open seat with about 54% of the vote.

There were also 18 votes cast in the 107th race for Working Families Party candidate Phoebe Holmes.

For State Senate District 28, Newtown favored Republican Tony Hwang, with 6,878 votes, over Democrat Tim Gavin, with 6,322 votes. With more than 95% of votes counted Wednesday morning, it appeared Hwang retained his seat by just over 600 votes.

In the governor’s race locally, Democrat Ned Lamont topped challenger Robert Stefanowski 6,949 to 5,935, with Independent Party candidate Robert Hotaling receiving 104 votes. On Wednesday morning, Lamont emerged as the declared winner as Stefanowski conceded the race in a press statement thanking voters for their support.

For the US Senate seat, Newtown voted for Democrat Richard Blumenthal, with 7,062 votes over Republican Leora Levy, with 5,884. Statewide, Blumenthal emerged victorious as Levy issued a statement conceding her loss shortly after polls closed November 8.

For the US 5th District House seat, Democrat Jahana Hayes claimed a very narrow victory over GOP challenger George Logan. (See related CTMirror report) Locally, Hayes registered a total of 6,720 votes to GOP challenger George Logan, who captured 6,227 votes.

For Secretary of the State, Democrat Stephanie Thomas had 6,594 votes, to Republican Dominic Rapini’s 5,896, and Independent Party candidate Cynthia Jennings’ count of 307. Thomas captured the win statewide with over 55% of the vote, according to reports.

For Attorney General, Democrat William Tong bested his challengers in Newtown, with 6,738 votes — while Republican Jessica Kordas had 5,911, Independent Party candidate AP Pascarella had 156 votes, and Green Party candidate Ken Krayeske had 53 votes. As of Wednesday morning, this race had been called in favor of Tong who received 57% of the vote.

For Treasurer, Democrat Erick Russell received 6,220 votes, Republican Harry Arora received 6,188 votes, Independent Party candidate Jennifer Baldwin tallied 301 votes, and Libertarian Party candidate JoAnna Laiscell received 76 votes.

Statewide, Russel captured the seat with over 52% of the vote, making him the first Black out LGBTQ+ person ever elected to statewide office in United States history.

For Comptroller, Democrat Sean Scanlon had the most Newtown votes, with a tally of 6,569, while Republican Mary Fay received 6,176 votes. Scanlon’s results were similar statewide as he captured the Comptroller seat with over 55% of the vote.

For the 45th district Probate Judge seat, Newtown voters preferred Republican Jennifer Collins, with 6,627 votes, over Democrat Steven Boa Demoura, with 6,057 votes. At about 11 am on Wednesday morning, however, Collins conceded the race on her campaign's Facebook page, saying: "I am proud of the Jennifer Collins for Probate Judge campaign and very thankful for all of the support we received and the new friends I made along the way. I congratulate Steven Boa DeMoura on the result of the election and wish him the very best of luck serving in this important role."

Elsewhere, all of Connecticut’s US House seats were retained by Democratic incumbents, returning John Larson, Joe Courtney, Rosa DeLauro, and Jim Himes to Washington representing Connecticut in their respective districts.

Charter Question #2

For Question #3, which was the second Charter ballot referendum, 5,291 Yes votes were cast versus 4,793 against. The approved Charter revision Question #2 will codify the following Newtown Charter changes:

The approved explanatory text states that, “Approval of Question #2 accepts the rest of the proposed changes in their entirety, comprised of organizational, non-substantive, and substantive changes made to the document including but not limited to:

“a) Section 1-25(a)(7). This provision redefines the term “Town Department” as the term applies to the Board of Education by exempting the Board of Education from certain duties and functions of Town Bodies which would violate other provisions of the Connecticut General Statutes applicable to the Board of Education.”

“b) Section 2-01(c). The Connecticut General Statutes shall prevail over the provisions of Section 2-01(c), which allows Town Bodies to make their own rules of conduct.”

“c) Section 2-05(d) eliminates the Building Appeals Board from the Charter, as does Section 2-15(d)” and “h) Section 2-210 eliminates the Building Appeals Board.”

“d) Section 2-25(a) excuses members of a Town Body from voting on the minutes of a previous meeting at which they were not in attendance.”

“e) Section 2-31(c)(1-5) describes the procedure for filling vacancies on the Board of Education.”

“f) Section 2-135(a) states Town Clerk shall also be the Registrar of Vital Statistics.”

“g) Section 2-160(a) states Board of Police Commissioners shall also act as the Civilian Police Review Board.”

“i) Section 3-15(e) describes the election process for the Board of Education.”

“j) Section 6-20 delineates the duties of the Legislative Council relative to the Budget.”

“k) Section 6-20(f)(2) defines the process subsequent to a failed annual budget referendum.”

“l) Section 6-35(b) & (d) revises the requests for emergency appropriations.”

“m) Section 6-35(g) modifies the procedure for emergency and special appropriations.”

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Associate Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.