'Unaffiliated' lead as Connecticut eclipses 2 million active voters



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With less than two weeks left until the 2016 election, the number of active eligible voters in Connecticut is at a high.

The office of Connecticut's Secretary of State announced recently that the state has passed the 2 million voter threshold, with 2,080,383 active voters. This compares to 1,923,103 active voters recorded in Oct. 2015.

The office reported that 261,166 voters have registered since the beginning of 2016.

Check out the gallery above for a voter count of Connecticut's major and third parties.

Since the beginning of 2016, Democratic voter registrations have outpaced Republican voter registrations, 97,792 to 49,609. But the two pale in comparison to unaffiliated registrations, of which the state has recorded 107,708 so far this year.

The three leading registration types each saw an increase from last year. Active Democrats jumped from 703,851 to 785430 (+81,579), active Republicans increased from 400,216 to 448,750 (+48,534), and unaffiliated voters went from 798,426 to 820,603 (+22,177).

While unaffiliated voters may not have seen the largest increase over the past year, they continue to be the biggest section of Connecticut's voter population.

Though Christopher Kukk, professor of political science at Western Connecticut State University, said the trend in unaffiliated voters in Connecticut is practically a tradition by now.

"It's kind of this 'land of steady habit' thing," Kukk said. "We kind of have this yankee spirit that's been around 100 years or so. People don't want to be tied down."

The current political climate is also—perhaps, most obviously—at play.

"There's a lot of people protesting the two-party system," Kukk noted. "One of the big surprises for me was seeing some of the Sanders supporters going over to Trump. They were giving this 'Sopranos salute' to the two-party system."

According to the state, new voters between the ages of 18 and 29 are leading the charge with almost 110,000 new registrations in 2016, most of which were as unaffiliated.

Despite this, state figures show that active voters over the age of 60 are the largest voter segment, with 700,481 registered active voters. Next are voters 45 to 59, with 614,886 registered active voters and voter 30 to 44, with 416,850 registered active voters.

Active voters, compared to inactive voters, have voted in at least two consecutive federal elections.

Minor parties in Connecticut retained a foot hole as well, the statistics show. However, these parties may offer little to change the climate even locally, Kukk said.

"It's a way of moving the system, especially on the local level to your party position," Kukk said. "I think some of it is local politics...Even having these small parties doesn't make a dent in terms of constructing policy."

The state saw a surge in voter registration on Sept. 27, after running a social media campaign, "#MyVoteCT," to encourage residents to register. The state saw 6,099 new voter applications, compared to 696 new applications during the same period a week before.

The state also registered 15,000 new voters thanks to a three-day Facebook campaign from Sept. 23 to 26.

"More people are registering to vote in Connecticut than ever before," Secretary of State Denise Merrill said in a release. The office also said this is the first presidential to use online voter registration, which was introduced in 2014. "We will reach out to people however we can to register every eligible citizen in Connecticut."

The optimists of America would hope this surge in Connecticut voters would translate into high voter turnout, which is typically the case anyways in federal elections compared to state elections. Kukk said "optimism" may be all those figures provide.

"I wish that was the case. But we've seen these blips before," Kukk said. "My hope is that we have a civically-engaged population. But our recent history has shown this isn't the case.

"I'm cautiously optimistic."

Residents still have until Nov. 1 to register to vote online or by mail. Residents can also register in-person on Election Day, though are being warned to expect long lines.