Primary day becomes more tech savvy

MERIDEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- Many practices for voting have recently changed and become more technologically savvy.

Some of the folks voting at one Meriden church were voting there for the first time. A lot of polling places were changed and consolidated since last November.

"We had redistricting this year, we do it every ten years and so some of the polling places may have changed, so we really recommend people come to our new Google app page," said Secretary of the State Denise Merrill.

Merrill's web page has a button that says "Where do I vote?" Click, and it lets you plug in your home address and up pops your voting location with a map of how to get there.

• Click here to find out where to vote.

That's not the only recent change in voting.

Two years ago, the town of Bridgeport didn't haven enough ballots, which tied up the results of the Governor's race for days.

"My office is now overseeing ballot ordering to some degree, although it's still done by the local people, we get to look at how many they're ordering and make recommendations if we don't think it's enough," Merrill said.

Last year, polling places had to change because they still didn't have power more than a week after the Autumn Nor'easter. Secretary Merrill says there's now an emergency backup plan in place.

But when it comes to Tuesday's election, would anybody notice a disruption? Back in Meriden things were awfully slow. Merrill predicts turnout will be low.
 
"Probably in the 20-30% range," she said. "Both parties are having primaries, but it's traditionally pretty low."