Hamden, Conn. – A Dramatic Turn in Legislative Primary Race
- A Connecticut candidate initially lost the Democratic primary race but was later declared the winner after a ballot counting error.
- The candidate's victory margin was only two votes, highlighting the importance of every vote in an election.
- The incident underscores the need for accurate and transparent election processes to ensure fair outcomes.
In a surprising twist in Connecticut's 91st House of Representatives District primary, candidate Jennifer Pope initially believed she had lost to Laurie Sweet, only to be declared the winner by a narrow margin of two votes due to a counting error. However, a recount conducted a week later revealed that Sweet had actually secured the nomination with 947 votes to Pope's 932, following the discovery of an envelope containing uncounted ballots. Pope expressed her shock at the rapid changes in the election outcome and stated that she would not concede until she was certain all votes had been accurately counted. “I’m still talking with my team about what our next steps should be,” she remarked, highlighting concerns over irregularities that emerged during the recount process. The first-time candidate described the experience as "crazy" and unexpected. Sweet, who had initially celebrated her victory after receiving a concession call from Pope, expressed confidence in the recount results. She noted that her campaign volunteers had suspected missing votes when reviewing the overall totals. Local election officials confirmed that some ballots had to be photocopied at one polling location due to a shortage of regular ballots, which ultimately required hand counting as they could not be processed through the tabulator. With the recount now complete, Sweet feels assured that the final tally reflects the true outcome of the primary, stating, “We could pretty clearly figure out that at least some were missing.”