Propelled By Fears Of ​“The Former Guy,” Dems Back Biden

(Updated) ​“Biden all the way,” said Cyn Chegwidden as she crossed the quiet mid-morning parking lot of Nathan Hale School on her way to the Ward 18 polling station to vote in Tuesday’s presidential primary. ​“I’m terribly worried, and I hope people are realizing how important this election is.”

Chegwidden was one of more than a dozen voters the Independent interviewed across the city on Tuesday, as Connecticut Democrats and Republicans head to the polls for the virtually uncontested closed presidential primaries. President Joe Biden is all but assured to win the Democratic nomination; same goes for former President Donald Trump’s bid for a third run as the Republican nominee. 

Besides just how many (or few) people actually vote in New Haven in this primary election, both early and on Tuesday, the only other potential unknown is how many Democrats cast their ballots for ​“Uncommitted” to signal their protest for Biden’s support for Israel in its ongoing war in Gaza. Polls close at 8 p.m. Find your polling place here.

According to the Registrar of Voters office, as of Tuesday, New Haven has 34,133 registered Democrats, 2,871 registered Republicans, 16,086 unaffiliated voters, and 523 third-party voters. Only registered Democrats can vote in Tuesday’s Democratic presidential primary, and only Republicans can vote in their party’s presidential primary.

On Tuesday, the Independent spoke with plenty of New Haveners voting for Biden. One voting for Trump. And no one voting uncommitted, so far. 

Like Chegwidden, fellow East Shore Democrat Michele D’Auria said she planned to vote for Biden. The issue was she had gone to the wrong polling station, the result of new districting lines in effect this year. ​“I’m really scared of him,” she said about former President Donald Trump — aka, in Biden’s words, ​“The Former Guy.” ​“If he gets in, I don’t know if we’re ever going to get him out.”

“Trump,” said Ed Taupier after being asked who he voted for, getting into his truck outside Nathan Hale. ​“He did better for me and for everyone else.”

"Rather Status Quo Than Chaos"

Meanwhile, at Westville’s Ward 25 polling place at Edgewood School, Brad Swain had his eye on his 4‑year-old son Isaac at the polls Tuesday — which is why Joe Biden won over a potential skeptic.

Swain, a behavioral scientist who moved to New Haven a year ago (and has made a career of studying how people don’t necessarily make decisions based on rationality), was among a steady stream of voters Tuesday morning at Edgewood School for Connecticut’s presidential primaries. Like other Democrats interviewed as they left the polls, he said he’d voted for incumbent President Biden.

In other years, Swain may have been tempted to cast a protest vote. He’d voted for third-party candidates in the past. He supported Bernie Sanders in Democratic primaries. While Biden has cinched his party’s nomination, the names of several protest alternatives appeared on Tuesday’s ballot. So did an ​“uncommitted” option promoted by opponents of U.S. support for Israel in the Gaza war.

“I’m surprisingly interested in the idea of Democratic unity right now” because of the stakes in November, when Biden is expected to face Trump, Swain said as he left the polls with Isaac. A second Trump administration ​“is not something I want to expose my kid to in the future. I’d rather have status quo than chaos.” Some voters did praise Biden. (George: ​“I like his policies.” Brad Duckrow: ​“A steady guy who understands the power of compromise.” John Stoehr: Biden’s first two years of legislation ​“will be considered transformative.”) Others, like Liz Duckrow, said they would vote for basically anyone to stop Trump.

"To Me, He's Crooked"

Outside of the Lincoln-Bassett School polling place in Newhallville at around 10:30 a.m., Marine Corps veteran Forester Curtis said Trump was on his mind as he cast his vote in Tuesday’s primary.

“To me, he’s crooked,” Curtis said about the former president and all-but-certain 2024 Republican nominee. ​“You see all this different stuff Trump’s got going against him. If any other person in this world” was in as much legal trouble as Trump is, ​“he’d be in jail right now.”

That said, Curtis continued, he showed up on Tuesday not to vote against Trump the man. He thought of himself as ​“voting against what he represents,” in particular all the ​“lying” that too many Republicans do.

Turning to his preferred candidate in this year’s presidential rematch, Curtis said, ​“Biden, he’s not doing everything right” either. ​“We’re shipping a whole lot of money to other countries when you got people right here in the United States suffering.”

Another Newhallville Democratic voter named Henry stood alongside a fellow Newhallville resident who didn’t cast a vote Tuesday (and who declined to share his name for this article) to talk about the neighborhood-level quality-of-life concerns on their mind even before who’s running for president this year.

Namely: A busted speed bump right nearby on Butler Street. Henry said that snow plows have so torn that bump apart that only a small, sharp, jutting nub remains. Someone needs to fix that, he pointed out. Because it’s no longer a real speed bump. But it is a tire hazard for sure.

Over at the Ward 21 King-Robinson School polling place on Fournier Street at around 10 a.m., Robert Beauvogui and Kanvi Kane cast ballots 11 and 12 of the day so far in a district with 673 registered Democrats and 16 registered Republicans.

Beauvogui and Kane, both of whom are from the country of Guinea in West Africa, said they voted on Tuesday ​“because it’s a right for everyone to vote” and so ​“our voices count,” as Beauvogui put it.

Plus, as Democrats, he sad it’s important to build momentum for November, given the likely rematch between Biden and Trump. For the general election, he said, ​“everything starts right now.”

Supporting Ceasefire, Voting Biden

Even as a light drizzle fell on New Haven, voters trickled into the polling place at 200 Orange St. downtown to cast their ballots.

Carla Jackson showed up to vote because ​“if you can vote, everyone should vote.” She voted for Biden. 

“I will continue to give them all kinds of shit for not having a ceasefire,” Jackson said. ​“I can do that. Before voting. I could do that after voting. And I can sit here I can protest, I can fight. I can do all those things. I can go to Union Station and sit in. 

“We can still fight and make sure that we’re not foolish enough to let other people take our vote for us. This is what people don’t understand. You can say that all day long. You can say okay, well, I’m not gonna vote for him or I’m gonna sit it out. Okay, you do that. What you’re doing is letting someone else have the power. I’m not going to let that happen,” she concluded. 

Another voter, Ulissis Artero, also said he supports a ceasefire, but voted for Biden because ​“he is the only one who has the experience.” 

“There’s a lot going on in the world right now and Biden is the only person I trust,” he said.