By Colleen Gundlach

Election Day 2014 in Norfolk was an amazingly beautiful autumn day, which may have contributed to the very good voter turnout. A healthy 72 percent of voters, or 738 people out of a total of 1,033 who registered to vote, cast ballots on November 4. Of these, 45 were absentee votes and 17 were election-day voters, who had just registered that day.

Norfolk has a large number of unaffiliated voters, a party majority of Democrats and less than 300 registered Republicans. The results at the polls largely followed the Democratic line, with two notable exceptions. Incumbent Republican Senator Kevin Witkos won over challenger Melissa Osborne in Norfolk, 361 to 327. Norfolk voters also favored the Republican candidate for state representative, Brian Ohler, over incumbent Democrat Roberta Willis, 381 to 325. Witkos retained his seat in the overall election, but Ohler was defeated district-wide by 129 votes out of a total 9,000 cast.

The amendment to the Connecticut constitution, which would have eliminated the requirement that a voter state a reason for needing an absentee ballot, passed in Norfolk 321 to 314 but was defeated state-wide.

Overall results in Norfolk were:

Governor: Dannel Malloy (D) 382, Tom Foley (R) 322, Joe Visconti (I) 7

U.S. Senate: Elizabeth Esty (D) 402, Mark Greenberg (R) 302

State Senate: Kevin Witkos (R) 361, Melissa Osborne (D) 327

State Representative: Brian Ohler (R) 381, Roberta Willis (D) 325

Secretary of State: Denise Merrill (D) 365, Peter Lumaj (R) 307

Treasurer: Denise Nappier (D) 366, Timothy Herbst (R) 321

Comptroller: Kevin Lembo (D) 370, Sharon O’Loughlin (R) 283

Attorney General: George Jepsen (D) 391, Kie Westby (R) 285, Stephen Fournier 13

Judge of Probate: Diane Blick (D) 392, Evan Brunetti (R) 291