First day of early voting brings heavy turnout

Voters receive one of these two winning entries in the 1st Annual "I Voted" Sticker Contest held by the Bristol Registrars of Voters. | David Fortier

The first morning of early voting was extremely busy, said Bristol’s administrator of elections.

“We had to order more ballots which were printed and delivered within a half hour of placing the order,” Jennifer Brunoli said.

“The line at 10 a.m. continued to grow and the wait was about an hour, an hour and a half,” she said. “So, I’m mentioning to people on the phone to wait until later in the week or come in on the weekend.”

By noon around 370 people voted, Brunoli said. A people showed up at 8 a.m. because they heard that time on the news.

“The start is 10 a.m., except for Oct. 29 and Oct. 31,” she said. On those days, voting is from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Early voting continues through Nov. 3 in council chambers at city hall. The hours for voting are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The exception, again, is on two dates, Oct. 29 and Oct. 31.

The voting stickers

Bristol residents who cast votes in the City Council District 3 special election will be familiar with the images in our featured photo.

The stickers, one a star with “I voted!” written inside against the background of an American flag and the other “I voted” written in red magic marker with a small American flag above “voted” and an image of Connecticut with the Bristol logo inside, are the winners of the 1st Annual “I Voted” Sticker Contest held by the City of Bristol Registrars of Voters office.

The creator of the first image, with the star, is Samantha Ferenc, a West Bristol Middle School student, whose favorite hobby is ice skating, owns a dog named Rudy and can speak three languages — English, Spanish and Polish.

The creator of the second image, with the state of Connecticut and the Bristol logo inside its boundaries, is Michael Pinette, a West Bristol Elementary School student, whose favorite hobby is fishing–he won this year’s Perry J. Spinelli Fishing Derby partnering with a friend — and who likes going outside but also likes playing video games.


All TBE readers, supporters and donors — Important               

Help us bring back local news with a donation today. Local is where we connect. Believe that local news is important? Support our work.