Ariela Lopez, Contributing Photographer

Vote Uncommitted CT emerged triumphant early Wednesday morning after 21 percent of New Haven Democrats — and 11.5 percent of Democrats statewide — marked their ballots for the “uncommitted” option on Connecticut’s rainy Primary Day on Tuesday.

The campaign, a project of the Connecticut Palestine Solidarity Coalition, has been organizing Connecticut Democrats since early March to vote against incumbent President Joe Biden in the Democratic presidential primary to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the president’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza. Biden and former President Donald Trump are the presumptive Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, respectively, following results from previous primaries. 

Overall turnout in New Haven and across the state was low — as of 2:00 a.m. on Wednesday with all precincts reporting, 3,786 people had voted in New Haven on Tuesday or during one of the four days of early voting last week. For comparison, 11,133 ballots were cast during the 2020 presidential primaries in New Haven — which were held in August, months after the races had ended and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In New Haven, 758 Democrats — the most of any municipality in the state — and, in Connecticut, 7,286 Democrats voted for the “uncommitted” option. Organizers from Vote Uncommitted CT previously told the News that the campaign’s official goal was 6,000 statewide votes.

“In the places that we expected it, we’re seeing really high responses to the ‘uncommitted’ campaign, and even in a lot of the smaller towns and villages in Connecticut, we’re seeing constant — at least 10 percent or higher, in most places — results for ‘uncommitted,’ which is not something that you would normally see in Connecticut,” said Chris Garaffa, an organizer with Vote Uncommitted CT. 

“Uncommitted” exceeds organizers’ expectations yet wins no delegates 

Vote Uncommitted CT’s parent organization, the Connecticut Palestine Solidarity Coalition includes organizations such as Connecticut Democratic Socialists of America, Jewish Voices for Peace’s Action Committee, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Islamic Association of Central CT Impact Organization and CT Students 4 Palestine.

Several of the participant organizations have been active in advocating for elected officials to publicly affirm support for Palestine and promoting legislation in Connecticut municipalities calling for a “permanent ceasefire” to end Israel’s military offense in Gaza. Israel has killed over 32,000 people in Gaza during the war, though experts believe thousands more to be dead under the rubble. Israel has undertaken the offensive in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, in which Hamas killed 1,200 people and took over 250 people as hostages.

Biden has previously expressed support for a six-week ceasefire but has stopped short of calling for a “permanent” ceasefire, which many American voters support, according to polls. 

Before Primary Day, Hamden Town Councilor Abdul Osmanu, who is involved with Vote Uncommitted CT and CT DSA told the News that he anticipated around 15 to 20 percent of New Haven Democratic voters would vote for “uncommitted.”

In the leadup to Primary Day, volunteers with several of Vote Uncommitted’s affiliate organizations spread the word about the campaign through phone banking, text banking and canvassing. Although Connecticut Democrats had the opportunity to vote last week during Early Voting, the campaign did not station canvassers by polling locations until Primary Day.

Garaffa, who helped coordinate Vote Uncommitted’s volunteer efforts for Primary Day, said that 22 volunteers signed up to canvas at four polling locations — Wilbur Cross High School, East Rock Community Magnet School, the Ellsworth Avenue fire station and the New Haven Hall of Records at 200 Orange St.

Most of the in-person volunteer efforts were slated for the morning, Garraffa said, to avoid the rain that fell throughout the day. By the evening, Garaffa said that some volunteers scheduled to canvas in person had switched their shifts to remote text or phone banking because of the weather.

Garaffa was optimistic from this morning canvassing in East Rock. Around 5 p.m., they said that they expected “hundreds” of New Haveners to vote “uncommitted,” a prediction that proved prescient. 

“People coming out to make the point that they are uncommitted are most of the voters we’ve seen today,” Garaffa said.

The results of Tuesday’s primary showed that New Haven had the most “uncommitted” votes of any municipality in Connecticut. 

Vote Uncommitted CT’s campaign resembles similar efforts in prior state primaries. Connecticut is now the state with the seventh-largest percentage of uncommitted Democratic voters.

Aside from Biden and “uncommitted,” the Democratic primary ballot featured candidates Rep. Dean Phillips, Cenk Uygur and Marianne Williamson, who visited New Haven on Thursday to encourage voters to vote for her instead of Biden. Williamson received two percent of the vote in New Haven.  

Turnout abysmally low

Across the Elm City, voter turnout was significantly lower than in previous elections. In September, 7,900 Democrats voted in the Democratic primary, which nominated candidates for New Haven mayor and alders and itself had low turnout — more than double the 3,527 Democrats that voted on Tuesday.

In 2012, the last presidential election in which a Democratic incumbent was running, Connecticut did not hold a Democratic presidential primary election because President Barack Obama, the presumptive nominee, ran uncontested.

Five poll moderators across New Haven wards told the News that voting had been slow but without issue. 

While the primary was projected to see low rates of voter turnout due to its uncompetitiveness, “uncommitted” was still able to rally enough votes for it to reach its goal of 6,000 “uncommitted” votes across Connecticut. 

But despite the lack of competition in Tuesday’s primary, some voters still made their ways to the polls to ensure their voices were heard this election cycle, be it by voting for candidates on the ballot or by voting “uncommitted.”

“I’m voting because it’s the opportunity to say something,” Denise Hallums, a Democrat voting in the Hill’s Ward 5, told the News. “I know several people — actually I know maybe 50 people — that’s not going to vote, and they never vote, but they don’t like what’s going on. So I like to come out and just vote and perhaps a change will come about from it.”

Horace Melton, who volunteered as a poll worker for Ward 3, also in the Hill, also emphasized the low turnout. At 5 p.m. he said that he felt that turnout was lower than it had been in the Democratic Town Committee co-chair special election in early March. By then, only 40 voters had voted in Ward 3.

Melton said he “doesn’t know why” turnout seemed so low.

“People always talk about how they want to change something, but you can’t change something if you don’t vote,” Melton said.

Trump support consistent among CT Republicans

Trump swept the Republican vote in New Haven and statewide, although he only received 194 votes in the New Haven primary and 34,760 votes across Connecticut. In contrast, in 2020 Trump received 291 votes in the New Haven primary and 71,666 votes across Connecticut. 

However, when considering voter turnout and comparing the percentage of Republican voters who voted for Trump in the primary, the difference between 2020 and 2024 was slim. Trump received 75 percent of the New Haven Republican vote in 2024 compared to 76 percent in 2020. Across Connecticut, Trump received 80 percent of the Republican vote in 2024 and 78 percent in 2020. 

South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, a former Republican candidate who suspended her campaign in March, won 14 percent of the Republican vote statewide and 13.9 percent of the Republican vote in New Haven.

Early voting runs smoothly, turnout lower than hoped

Municipalities across the state implemented in-person early voting programs for four days the week prior to Primary Day. In New Haven, voters could cast their ballots at the city’s early voting site at 200 Orange St. from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. This election marked Connecticut voters’ first opportunity to partake in in-person early voting after the state legislature approved the program in 2023.

Carlos Reis, a co-chair for Ward 5, who worked as a poll worker throughout the four days of early voting, said he thinks that in–person early voting is a good idea because it allows voters more flexibility if they are unable to make it to the polls on Election Day.

Reis, who assisted in tabulating the ballots cast after each day of early voting, said that the numbers of early voters were lower than he expected, especially on Saturday. He speculated that the Easter holiday weekend may have contributed to the low turnout.

Lisa Milone, the treasurer for the New Haven Republican Town Committee who cast her ballot during in-person early voting because of a trip scheduled for Primary Day, said that implementing an early voting program was a bad idea.

Milone said that in-person early voting was an expensive endeavor, especially considering the low turnout. She said that the problem of expenses would only get worse for elections with longer early voting periods — such as the general election this November where New Haveners can vote early in person on 14 days — and speculated that the voters that voted early were voters that would cast a ballot anyway.

“If we were going to get 20 percent turnout, we are still going to get 20 percent turnout,” Milone said.

A total of 246 people voted early in New Haven — 239 Democrats and seven Republicans. These numbers represent 6.8 percent of all the New Haven Democratic primary voters and 2.8 percent of New Haven Republican primary voters — or 6.5 percent of all primary voters.

There are over 30,000 registered voters in New Haven.