The Newtown Republican Primary for US Senator closed at 8 pm Tuesday, August 13, with local Republicans favoring Matthew Corey with 277 votes over Gerry Smith, who received 195 votes.

Corey also defeated Smith statewide. He will now face Senator Chris Murphy for the seat in November.

Voting will be held on November 5 with 14 days of early voting starting October 24.

Other towns across the state additionally had Democratic primaries: Bethany, Bloomfield, Bridgeport, Chaplin, Colchester, Danbury, East Granby, Ellington, Enfield, Granby, Hamden, Hampton, Hartford, Lebanon, Monroe, New Britain, New Haven, Norwalk, Scotland, Somers, Stamford, Stratford, Suffield, Trumbull, West Hartford, Windham, Windsor, and Windsor Locks.

Some towns had Republican primaries in addition to the US Senate Primary: Bridgeport, Bridgewater, Brooklyn, Canterbury, Darien, Easton, Fairfield, Greenwich, Hebron, Killingly, Mansfield, Monroe, New Canaan, New Milford, Norwalk, Oxford, Pomfret, Putnam, Redding, Ridgefield, Roxbury, Scotland, Shelton, Southbury, Stamford, Thompson, Trumbull, Weston, Westport, Wilton, and Windham.

This primary was Connecticut’s second early voting period since the Presidential Preference vote in April. Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas said during a press conference on August 13 she was grateful to all election workers for assisting in creating a “smooth election.”

Smooth elections don’t happen by accident, she said.

"They are the result of hundreds of election workers around the state giving their best,” Thomas added.

Newtown is no exception. The Registrar of Voters office held seven days of early voting for the Republican primary. It is preparing to hold fourteen straight days of early voting come October. Despite Newtown's best efforts, the voting turnout was only about 9.06% according to LeReine Frampton, the Democratic Registrar of Voters, "Turnout was very disappointing."

Erica Canfield, the Republican Registrar of Voters, echoed this, saying, "In my opinion the early voting, for this particular election didn’t increase voter turnout overall...No matter how many voters come out to vote, our office is always prepared!"

Secretary Thomas said the August 13 primary gave "our election workers another opportunity to test the system and ensure we’re as well prepared as we can be for early voting in November.” It is essential that election workers have ample time to understand early voting protocol ahead of the 2024 presidential election as there has been a huge push on social media for American citizens to vote this November.

“What we’ve seen from the data collected around the country is that there is a direct correlation to the amount of advertising and the amount of early voters,” she added. “It shows that if efforts are made to reach out to voters directly and educate them, we can expect to see more turnout at the polls.”

=====

Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.