Secretary of State Denise Merrill has announced that the Town of West Hartford has received the Democracy Cup for municipalities with a population of 50,000 or more, in recognition of voter turnout in the November 2018 election.

By Ronni Newton

West Hartford’s voter turnout of 74.94 percent in the November 2018 election has earned the town the Democracy Cup, Secretary of State Denise Merrill announced Friday.

Photo credit: Ronni Newton

The Democracy Cup is awarded to the municipality with the highest voter turnout in the November election among towns of similar size. West Hartford earned the award in the “city” category, with the highest turnout among municipalities with more than 50,000 residents.

Washington, with 87.66 percent turnout, earned the Democracy Cup for small towns, while Granby (76.79 percent) and Guilford (79.96 percent) earned the award for mid-sized and large towns, respectively.

West Hartford Republican Registrar of Voters Beth Kyle said that she is very excited that the town has won the Democracy Cup.

“I’m proud of the voters of our town because the large turnout shows their level of engagement,” Kyle said Monday.

Increased voter engagement was a goal for 2018, she said, and extensive outreach efforts were made throughout the year.

“For National Voter Registration Day in September, we sent a letter to every school in West Hartford who had students of voting age,” Kyle said. That included not only Conard, Hall, and Northwest Catholic, but other smaller schools, even those that may have just a handful of potentially-eligible voters.

Kyle said that the registrars also work closely with the University of Hartford, because some of the dorms are within West Hartford. “You vote where your ‘bonafide residence’ is,” Kyle said – where you regularly sleep – and many University of Hartford students are registered to vote in West Hartford.

Kyle said that she and Casey Rousseau, who was the interim Democratic registrar during the 2018 election period, were also actively involved promoting voting through a variety of means, including social media, and she believes that helped with turnout.

West Hartford also had strong local candidates, who encouraged their supporters to go to the polls in the November 2018 election.

“Record breaking voter registration was followed by record breaking voter turnout in Connecticut,” Merrill said in a statement. “Our democracy is healthy, and I will fight to continue to make both registration and voting convenient and without unneeded obstacles.”

According to the Secretary of State’s Office, in the November 2018 general election, a midterm election record 1,421,953 people cast a ballot out of an all-time high of 2,181,197 registered voters. Total statewide turnout was 65.19 percent.

Merrill will visit West Hartford on March 26, during the Town Council meeting, to present the Democracy Cup.

The town has previously received the award, but the last time was in 2007 – the last year that there were only three categories for small, medium, and large towns. West Hartford also won the Democracy Cup in the “large town” category in 2006, 2005, 2003, 2002, and 2000.

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