Real-Life Connecticut Voting Incident Imitates the 2008 Film “Swing Vote”

The Connecticut Democratic primary held on August 14 featured a very close contest for the party’s nomination for State Representative, 5th district. A recount was held, which ended up as a tie. Then it was discovered that one absentee ballot had never been counted because, while the ballot was still sealed, someone wrote “deceased” on the outer envelope. But, it turns out that voter is not dead. She is a 91-year-old woman living in a nursing home. Her ballot, which still hasn’t been opened, will presumably decide the race, unless possibly she voted for the third candidate on the ballot, or possibly she left that office blank. See this story.

This real-life incident is reminiscent of the 2008 film “Swing Vote.” UPDATE: on September 20, the ballot envelope was opened, but the voter had voted for the third-ranked candidate, so her vote didn’t change the tie between the top two finishers. Therefore, a new primary will be held. See this story. The federal law concerning the need to mail overseas absentee votes does not pertain to state office, so it seems likely this office will be omitted from the general election ballot mailed to overseas voters.


Comments

Real-Life Connecticut Voting Incident Imitates the 2008 Film “Swing Vote” — 5 Comments

  1. Pingback: Links 9/20/12 « naked capitalism

  2. #2, yes, how she voted is now not a secret. That also happens sometimes in states in which minor parties are given their own primary, and sometimes there is only one minor party member in a precinct who votes in that party’s primary.

  3. I’m surprised CT does not have a tie-breaking procedure. Now the State must pay for an entirely new election. And this will simply convince some people that voting for someone who doesn’t finish 1st or 2nd is a “wasted vote”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.