Outcome of Connecticut legislative primary race flip-flops amid miscount, missing ballots

HAMDEN, Conn. (AP) — A candidate for an open Connecticut legislative seat who thought she lost last week’s Democratic primary, only to be declared the winner by two votes when a counting error was discovered 90 minutes after she conceded, has again found herself in the losing column.

A recount held Tuesday, a week after the primary in the 91st House of Representatives District in Hamden, determined Jennifer Pope’s opponent, Laurie Sweet, had actually won her party’s nomination — 947 to 932 -- when an envelope with uncounted ballots was found.

Pope said Wednesday that she was shocked by the series of flip-flops and is not conceding until she is sure all the votes have been counted.

“I’m still talking with my team about what our next steps should be. There is quite a few irregularities that came out in yesterday’s recount,” said the first-time candidate.

“It’s been a crazy experience for sure. I definitely wasn’t anticipating it to go quite this way,” Pope said.

Sweet had already given an acceptance speech the night of the primary after getting a concession call from Pope, only to learn of the miscount. But she said she is now confident the final tally is accurate after Tuesday’s recount showing her to be the winner.

She said when her volunteers looked at the overall vote totals, it was apparent to them that some votes were missing. Local officials said some primary ballots had to be photocopied at one polling place when poll workers ran out of regular ballots. Ultimately, those ballots had to be hand-counted because they couldn’t be fed through the tabulator, Hearst Connecticut Media reported.

“We could pretty clearly figure out that at least some were missing,” Sweet said. “So I’m confident that those that were missing were counted yesterday.”