Darien commuters rush into polling sites in final hours

Written by Lynsey Santimays
Tuesday, 03 November 2009 19:48

As 8 p.m. nears, the polling locations at Hindley School, Holmes School and Ox Ridge School saw a last-minute rush of voters as commuters got out of work just in time to cast their vote.

• Follow live online coverage from The Darien Times here

At around 5:30, District 4 polling site Hindley School was relatively empty, with only a handful of voters. In a matter of minutes, the line to vote had grown to almost 20 Darienites, as many had just left work.

“We are expecting a rush as the three trains come into Darien,” Hindley moderator Thomas Foley said. “They will be full of commuters, ready to vote.”

Other than a slow period at around 1:30, there was a continuous flow of voters the entire day, spiking at 6, 10, and 3. By 5:30, 789 of approximately 2,000 registered voters had turned out — nearly 40 percent.

“We expect to be closer to 50 percent turnout by the end of the day,” Foley said.

Dorothy McKay, who came with daughters Caroline and Kat in tow, came out to exercise her “civic duty” of voting. “I feel like I should, local elections are important,” McKay said.

Jan Raymond made the trip to the polls to fulfill her duty, as well. “I think it is important to vote every time you have the opportunity,” Raymond, a Darien Housing Authority commissioner, said. Affordable housing wasn’t a far thought from Raymond’s mind as she cast her vote, as it was one of the most important issues this election year.

“I really feel we have to get some moderate income housing built,” Raymond said.

Earlier in the day, Democratic candidate for selectman David Bayne was outside Town Hall. This evening, however, The Times found him camped outside the District 3 polling site, Holmes School.

Bayne greeted voters, introducing himself, and reminding them to “flip over their ballots” to vote for the Representative Town Meeting races also.

Inside Holmes, the scene was on the quieter side, with about five or six voters there at one time. Moderator James Hett Jr. said that despite some lulls throughout the day, he expected voter turnout to be around average, which is around 40 percent.

“It was heavy before 9, during lunchtime, and picking up now,” he said. There were never very long waits, though, as there were eight voting stations at Holmes.

By 6 p.m., 704 people had voted out of 2,228 registered District 3 voters, resulting in about 31 percent turnout.

Darienites leaving the Holmes polls shared the sentiment that they were fulfilling their responsibility to vote in local elections. John Stracuzzi said he was simply performing his civic duty, and that “it is always important to vote in local elections.”

Lynn Dennis echoed these feelings, stating, “I am coming to the polls to exercise my right to vote.”

Joseph Maker added: “It is important to vote in local elections. Local government impacts us more closely.”

At District 1 polling site Ox Ridge School, the vote count was up to 813 out of approximately 2,100 registered voters by 6:50 p.m., bringing them to about 39 percent turnout.

At around 7 p.m., Ox Ridge was relatively empty, but had experienced a ‘rush hour’ of voters shortly before.

Moderator John Price said that in the past hour, they had seen more voters than they had all day. “It was pretty steady all day, but definitely more in the last hour,” Price said.

As the polls were about to come to a close, a few straggling voters came into Ox Ridge, but Price did not expect a last-minute rush.

As evident at these three polling sites, it looks as if voter turnout will be higher than usual for local elections.

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it