Bysiewicz, McMahon Win in East Haven

UPDATE at 10 p.m.

As expected, Republican Linda McMahon and Democrat Chris Murphy for the right to succeed Joe Lieberman in the U.S. Senate.

With 77 percent of the precincts reporting at 10 p.m., McMahon was soundly defeating former U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays with 76 percent of the vote. Meanwhile, Murphy cruised by Bysiewicz, the Middletown native and former Secretary of the State, by a comfortable 66 percent to 34 percent margin.

And while East Haven's Republicans may have followed the statewide trend in today's primary by voting big for Linda McMahon as their preferred U.S. Senate candidate over Shays.

The town's Democrats went against the grain, selecting Susan Bysiewicz as their candidate of choice over Murphy.

The following are East Haven's results as they were tabulated tonight at town hall:

• Republican Primary

         Linda McMahon - 407

         Chris Shays -120

• Democratic Primary

        Susan Bysiewicz - 395

        Chris Murphy - 326

A total of 527 Republicans cast their ballots today in East Haven, which is about 21 percent of the local party's 2,481 registered voters.

A total of 716 Democrats went to the town's polls, which is about 13.5 percent of that local party's 5,288 registered voters here.

Currently, there are 7,047 voters who are registered as unaffiliated in East Haven.

Congressional Races

Although there were no primaries required for the 3rd Congressional District, which includes East Haven, other parts of the state had contested battles.

In the Fifth Congressional District, Elizabeth Esty emerged on the Democratic side with a convincing 43 percent to 34 percent margin (as of 10 p.m.) over the embattled Chris Donovan, once considered the strong frontrunner before a campaign-finance scandal involving several members of his staff, and dark-horse Dan Roberti (23 percent).

Republicans in the Fifth District went down to the wire, with favorite Andrew Roraback pulling it out with 34 percent of the vote, followed by Mark Greenberg (28 percent), Lisa Wilson-Foley (19 percent) and Justin Bernier (19 percent) as of 10 p.m.

In the Second Congressional District, East Lyme restaurateur Paul Formica was running away with the Republican primary over Madison’s Daria Novak by about a 2-to-1 ratio, as of 9 p.m. and was declared the winner.

ORIGINAL STORY (Posted at 4:45 p.m.)

It's been a drip, drip, drip of voters for election workers at East Haven's District 5 polling station at the Hays School on Maple Street today.

As of about 3 p.m., a total of 141 5th District voters had cast their ballots in today's .

That translates to just about 10 percent of the district's 1,484 registered voters: 530 Republicans and 945 Democrats.

"It's been very slow," Linda Napolitana, the 5th District election moderator, told East Haven Patch this afternoon at the polls.

Although turnout has been low, Napolitana said it has still been very helpful to have the district's ballot boxes back at the Hays School — as opposed to sharing space with District 3 voters at Deer Run or at the high school — for the first time in three years.

"It's been nice," she said.

East Haven Ballot

In East Haven, only the two parties' U.S. Senate candidates are on the ballot — Linda McMahon and Chris Shays for the Republicans; Chris Murphy and Susan Bysiewicz for the Democrats.

There is no primary in this year's 3rd District U.S. Congressional seat race between Democratic incumbent Rosa DeLauro and her Republican challenger Wayne Winsley.

Low Turnout Townwide

And District 5's numbers mirror those across all of East Haven's polling stations today.

Democratic Town Committee Chairman Gene Ruocco has been here on East Haven Patch.

According to his latest update at 3 p.m., there were a total of 432 Democrats and 318 Republicans who had cast their ballots in town.

"These are very low numbers, still hoping voters come out after work," Ruocco commented.

Currently, there are 2,481 registered Republicans in East Haven and 5,288 Democrats.

Both groups, however, are overshadowed by the growing number of unaffiliated voters registered in town, which now sits at 7,047.

Smooth Voting So Far

Republican Registrar of Voters Donna Norman told East Haven Patch that so far today's primary vote has gone smoothly and there have been no major problems.

"Knock on wood," she said.

And although turnout for today's primary was expected to be low across the state, it has been busier than the on April 24, which presumptive nominee Mitt Romney won by a landslide. On that day, only 203 registered Republicans cast their votes here in town.

Connie Woznick and Ann Parlato, who both serve as assistant registrar of voters, told East Haven Patch that the last time the town saw a busy primary was during the 2008 presidential nomination race between Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

"We never stopped all day that day. The lines were out the door," Woznick said. "And it was full boat."