On Super Tuesday, Feb. 5, Connecticut and 21 other states will go a long way toward deciding which candidates will be chosen to represent their parties in the 2008 presidential election.
Connecticut's Democratic and Republican primary elections are closed, which means that only those who belong to a political party can vote in their respective primary. If an unaffiliated or new voter wants to register as a Democrat or Republican, he or she has until noon on Feb. 4, the day before the primary, to register if he or she does it by bringing the form to the registrar, according to Chris Healy, chairman of the State Republican Party.
If an individual opts to register by mail, it must be postmarked by Jan. 31, and groups of voters must bring the registration forms to the respective town registrar of voters by Jan. 31, according to Beverly Miela, the Mansfield Republican registrar of voters. If a voter wishes to switch parties, it must be done at least three months in advance.
The candidates that will be on the Republican primary ballot are Rudolph Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, John McCain, Duncan Hunter, Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee and Alan Keyes, according to a press release from Sec. of State Susan Byciewicz. The Democratic candidates appearing on the ballot are Barack Obama, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, Bill Richardson, John Edwards, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton.
"Even though some candidates have dropped out, they will remain on the ballot," said Justin Kronholm, the executive director for the Connecticut Democratic Party.
In the Connecticut republican primary, the candidate with the most votes from Connecticut residents gets all 27 votes from delegates, who are all committed to voting for the majority winner, Healy said. The remaining three delegates, one of whom is Healy and all of whom are elected by the republican state central committee, are uncommitted to the candidate. In the event that the candidate who won in Connecticut is not eligible to have the national party's nomination because he or she does not have the 1,190 delegate votes to secure it, the candidate may release the delegates, meaning they can vote for whomever they choose.
The Connecticut democratic primary is different, however. The 31 delegate votes are apportioned by the number of votes each candidate has, and a winner is elected, Kronholm said. Each presidential candidate needs 15 percent of the vote to be a viable candidate in Connecticut. However, on March 19, the party will hold caucuses in each Congressional district to determine who, of those that applied, will become voting delegates. Delegates are chosen with strict diversity requirements, meaning they are dispersed evenly by sex and ethnicity.
"This primary, unlike others, has an increased significance because there is no clear front-runner," said Marshall Rivers, a 7th-semester political science and geography double major and the vice president of the UConn College Democrats. "It's important students vote because at this point, any momentum helps."
The polling place for UConn students who live on campus will be at the Mansfield Community Center on Route 195, Miela said. Other students who live off campus in Mansfield will have to check their voter acceptance letters to see which polling place they are eligible to vote at. The other two polling places in town are the Eagleville Fire Station on Route 32 and the Buchanan Center, attached to the Mansfield Library, which is located on Route 89.
"If a student is registered in another town and wishes to be able to vote in Mansfield, be sure to fill out the part of that application so they do not double-register," Miela said.
Several organizations on campus, including the UConn College Democrats, have tried to get a polling place on campus in the past, according to Rivers, but there won't be one for this upcoming primary.
"The fact that the polling place would target a specific demographic is legally debatable," Rivers said.
The College Democrats, however, will be going door-to-door to remind registered democrats to vote on Feb. 5 and to ask which candidate they support. On primary day, teams of members will split up by which candidate they support and bring the students they rounded up during the week to vote at Mansfield Community Center, Rivers said.
Contact Kala Kachmar at
Kala.Kachmar@UConn.edu.
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