The Secretary of The State Bysiewicz Announces “Democracy Cup” Winners West Hartford, Shelton, Middlebury take honors for top voter turnout Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz today congratulated the citizens of West Hartford, Shelton, and Middlebury for making their towns the winners of the 2005 “Democracy Cup,” a recognition given out every year to the towns with the best voter turnout on Election Day. Co-sponsored by the East Haddam Civic Association (EHCA), the Democracy Cup Challenge was established in 2000 as a way to encourage and recognize voter participation. West Hartford took the prize for voter turnout by a large municipality with 43.7 percent of its people turning out this past Election Day, Shelton won the midsize-town category with 52 percent turnout, and Middlebury one the smallsized town category with 73.7 percent turnout, Secretary Bysiewicz said. “Once again, our Democracy Cup winners stand as an excellent example of why Connecticut every year has among the best voter turnouts in the nation. I congratulate West Hartford, Shelton, and Seymour for their wonderful efforts, and particularly would like to commend West Hartford for winning the Democracy Cup for the 2nd straight local election, and for the 4th time all together since 2000,” Secretary Bysiewicz said. “Casting a vote for our leaders is the very root of our Democracy and has been since our country was first established. It’s a very simple task, but its implications are historic and immeasurable.” “It is heartening to see that a new community, Shelton, has joined the list of voter turnout winners. When we first started doing this, we had hoped that towns would use new techniques to encourage even better voter turnout, and it would appear that Shelton has moved into that category,” said EHCA President Scot Mackinnon. “West Hartford and Middlebury, both past winners, continue to demonstrate continued excellence in voter turnout, and we all have a lot to learn from their consistency.” Under the Democracy Cup Challenge criteria, towns with less than 15,000 Registered voters are considered small, mid-size municipalities have between 15-35,000 voters and large towns over 35,000. Each winning town will be able to host and display a Democracy Cup trophy through next year’s November elections. Shelton Republican Town Committee © Copyright 2006 Paid for by the Shelton Republican Town Committee, Jean Anderson Treasurer