Community Corner
Hurricane Sandy Never a Threat to Election Day in Durham
While the storm will have an impact on voters in some cities and towns in Connecticut, local election officials say voting will be business as usual at Korn School.
Despite concern among election officials in other parts of Connecticut, Hurricane Sandy will have no impact on election day in Durham.
"We were very well prepared even before the storm," says Karen Cheyney, the town's Democratic Registrar of Voters.
Find out what's happening in Durham-Middlefieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Today is the last day to register to vote for the Nov. 6 election, a deadline moved back by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in the wake of the storm that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses.
Cheyney was surprised when 11 residents showed up at Town Hall on Tuesday, even as Sandy was winding down and storm cleanup was just getting underway, to register to vote.
Find out what's happening in Durham-Middlefieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
"For the past three weeks we have had anywhere from 10-15 a day," she says "It's been higher than usual."
Town Hall will be open until 8 p.m. Thursday to accomodate any last minute registrations.
At a press conference at the Capitol on Wednesday, Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said that the storm had left over 100 polling places throughout the state without power, although she was confident that the locations would be open this Tuesday.
Short of a disaster, Durham will be ready on Election Day.
"We have a backup portable generator ready if the power went out. If we had to, we could hold the election right now without electricity," Cheney said.
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