Democrats outnumbered Republicans by nearly a 4-1 margin at the polls Monday in the first of 14 days of early voting in Connecticut, the secretary of the state’s office reported Tuesday.

With polls open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., 42,241 cast votes in person and another 23,170 cast absentee ballots by mail or at drop boxes. Early voting continues through Nov. 1, the Sunday before the Nov. 3 election.

By not quite a 3-1 margin, Democratic voters also dominated the first absentee ballots received.

The top line race in Connecticut features Gov. Ned Lamont, a 72-year-old Democrat seeking a third term, against Ryan Fazio, a 36-year-old Republican state senator from Greenwich. Other statewide constitutional offices, all five U.S. House seats and all 187 General Assembly seats are on the ballot.

Fazio, the 287th voter at Greenwich town hall on Monday, slid his ballot into one of the state’s new generation of tabulators that scan the paper ballots. His fiancée, Amy Orser, was the 286th voter in the wealthy hometown they share with the Democratic governor and his wife.

“I think I got 100% right,” Fazio said, smiling as he likened the ballot to an exam.

Lamont’s plan is to vote on Election Day.

Like every other state except Louisiana, all votes in Connecticut are cast on paper ballots that are preserved for any necessary recount. The tabulators are not online, a protection against hacking.

Lamont, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas and local lawmakers encouraged early voting at press conference Monday outside the Miller Memorial Library, the early voting polling site in Hamden.

“Emergencies happen every single day — sick children, accidents, flat tires, a family situation, a work situation — and early voting is how you ensure that one emergency doesn’t deprive you of the right to vote,” Thomas said.

Polls are open for early voting most days from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with extended hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Oct. 27 and 29. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 3.

Early votes were cast Monday by 24,862 Democrats, 6,506 Republicans, 10,356 unaffiliated and 517 minor-party voters; absentee ballots by 12,019 Democrats, 4,396 Republicans, 6,455 unaffiliated and 300 minor-party members, according to Thomas’ office.

There also were 182 early votes cast by residents using same-day registration.

The most first-day votes were cast in West Hartford, 981; Milford, 846; Stratford, 841; Fairfield, 812; Norwalk, 756; Stamford, 689; Manchester, 671; Glastonbury, 646; East Lyme, 611; and Trumbull, 596.

Connecticut was the among the last states to offer early in-person voting, beginning in in 2024. It was quickly embraced, with 837,233 voting early in the 2024 presidential election.

“Imagine that over 800,000 of our just under 2 million voters voted early and safely and securely cast their ballots,” said Bysiewicz, a former secretary of the state. “So today, all of us want to encourage you to do the same. You can avoid long lines that occur on election day.”

For the first time, the state this year also offers voting by mail with absentee ballots that are available to any registered voter. Previously, absentee ballots could only be used under limited circumstances, such as illness and being out of town during hours of voting on Election Day.

“Take advantage of it,” Lamont said.

Thomas confirmed that her office was among four involved in elections to be targeted with mail containing a suspicious white powder that has not been publicly identified. They were intercepted by postal inspectors, she said.

Similar letters have gone to members of Congress across the country.

Fazio used his early vote, which attracted a handful of reporters, as an opportunity to reiterate his case against the governor, which focused on the impact of inflation and high taxes on Connecticut voters. 

“They’re suffering under the weight of the third-highest taxes and the highest unemployment rate in the country after eight years of the Lamont administration, and they want new leadership, and they want Democrats and Republicans to work together in our state rather than move to their corners and constantly fight,” he said.

The consensus of public polling is that voters’ top concern is, indeed, affordability, but they are more inclined to blame President Donald Trump’s tariffs and war on Iran, which has driven up fuel prices. Three recent polls have Lamont leading by 20 percentage points, something Fazio downplayed.

“Well, you certainly don’t like complacency,” Lamont said. “What we’re trying to do is remind people that your vote matters and elections matter. I think we’ve learned that a lot, especially over the last few election cycles.”