VOICES Barcellos-Allen: Every Vote Counts. On Every Ballot Line.

Third parties have become an increasingly relevant and consequential part of CT politics. In 2010, the Malloy/Wyman ticket was elected by less than 6500 votes statewide. The difference in that election? Third parties. Democrats Malloy and Wyman lost to Republicans Tom Foley and Mark Boughton by about 20,000 votes, and were bailed out by upstart Working Families Party candidates Dan Malloy and Nancy Wyman who earned more than 26,000 more votes to secure the win.

Maybe even more consequential were the 17,629 voters who cast a ballot for Independent Party candidates Tom Marsh and Cicero Booker.

Since 2010, the CT GOP has committed itself avoiding a repeat of 2010, and securing additional ballot positions for its candidates on the Independent Party line, culminating in an endorsement of Bob Stefanowski for Governor in 2018, along with the rest of the GOP ticket. But as Kevin Rennie reports, this year change could be in the air.

Exactly what this means for down-ballot races in a Presidential year is tough to figure. In 2016, Kevin Witkos received more than 2200 votes on the Independent Party line, fully 4.4% of the votes cast in the race for Senate. In 2018, Witkos again earned a second ballot position with the Independent Party line. A mid-term election, 5,000 fewer votes were cast in the 8th race two years ago, and Witkos collected almost 1200 votes on the line, 2.5% of all votes cast.

So finding an apples to apples comparison for 2020 isn’t easy, but in a rematch of 2018’s race in the 17th House District, we know it could matter. In that race two years ago, Republican Leslee Hill received 274 votes on the Independent line, or 2.2% of votes. Hill beat Eleni Kavros DeGraw—who collected 230 votes on the WFP line and is likely to have that position again in 2020—by less than 1%.

Of course even if there's no GOP candidate on the Independent Party line, there’s no certainty of what those voters will do—they may just vote for a candidate on a major party line instead, or take a principled stand and not vote in a given race at all. Nevertheless, the potential loss of a second ballot position is a variable GOP candidates weren’t looking to add to the equation for 2020, and another opportunity for Democrats in races where literally every vote counts.

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Dana Barcellos-Allen is the 8th District State Central Committeewoman, and serves as the Vice Chair of the Avon DTC