Interesting Numbers from Farmington's Vote Totals

The complete vote totals from Tuesday’s election in Farmington reveal some interesting numbers.

First, turnout in town reached 78 percent, down slightly from the 81 percent turnout of the 2008 presidential election. That equals 13,713 votes of the 17,473 residents registered to vote.

Next, 1,437 absentee ballots were cast, including civilian, armed-forces and ballots sent from overseas. That number is up from the approximately 1,200 cast in 2008.

Of the total, 5,731 votes were cast by Republicans and 6,655 by Democrats. In races where the challenger was unknown or campaigned little or not at all, such as in the race for the 19^th House District and the Sixth Senatorial District, vote totals were still fairly close, indicating voters may have stuck to party lines when voting.

On the other hand, some Farmington residents used their vote to express support for third parties or independent candidates. Mike Demicco, for example, who won the race for 21^st House District, received 388 votes on the Working Families line. Elizabeth Esty, elected to represent the Fifth Congressional District, also got 355 votes on the Working Families line, while her opponent, Andrew Roraback, received 378 on the Independent line.

For president, Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson garnered 118 votes, Independent Ross “Rocky” Anderson got 40 votes and Write-In candidate James Harris got one.

The process went relatively smoothly, said Democratic Registrar Barbara Brenneman.

Even though Irving A Robbins Middle School had been broken up into four separate precincts with different ballots, due to the recent redistricting, voting there also went well, Brenneman said.

“Every precinct in the state had minor problems but they were 30-second problems you call the moderator and resolve,” Brenneman said.

“It went really well. IAR was amazing. I expected the voters would have a problem but they didn’t - the high school kids were there directing people. And turnout was good but we didn’t have people walk away,” she said.