Recount due to 251 votes improperly added to total that flipped race to Democrat challenger.
17th State Senate District heading to recount
https://www.wtnh.com/news/politics/17th-state-senate-district-heading-to-recount/1583979273
Revised numbers show Republicans State Sen. George Logan leading by 65 votes.
State Senator George Logan leads Democratic challenger Jorge Cabrera by 65 votes. The vote count originally submitted to the Secretary of the State office showed Cabrera leading by 187 votes, one vote more vote than necessary to trigger an automatic recount.
Revised numbers flipped the results when it was discovered at least 251 votes were improperly added to the totals.
Complicating the situation was an explanation given by Ansonia’s City Attorney John Marini.
Marini told the Valley Independent newspaper “As of right now, we know that two absentee ballots in 7th Ward were counted over 200 times. Trying to figure out more details.”
On Friday, he clarified the statement saying two ballots were not counted over and over.
“The ballots were not put through the machine 200 times,” Marini told News 8’s George Colli. “It appears it was a mistake made in reporting from the Registrar’s office to the Secretary of the State. Essentially, from what we’re being told, it was a data entry mistake.”
Marini says that instead of two absentee ballots being counted, they were reported as being in excess of 200 absentee ballots. Reporting errors to the Secretary of the State are not uncommon and procedures are in place to catch any mistakes, as in this case. Marini’s original comments, however, implied voter fraud took place. Marini and Mayor David Cassetti say the reason for the reporting error needs to be determined so it doesn’t happen again.