Surprises for Dem. Primaries in Connecticut
Results of Primaries Show Landslide Victories and Local Upsets
Aug 14, 2008
Late into the night on the 12th of June members of Connecticut's registrar were tallying the votes for the days Democratic Primaries. The team led by Sandy Ayala, counted and tallyed unitl 2:30 am on Wednesday to make sure that the public gets the correct and shocking results the day provided.
There were 25 precincts in all reporting, that covered six races with thirteen canidadates going up for spots in State House and Senate Districts and a U.S. House District.
Jim Himes won U.S. House District 4, by beating out Lee Whitnum 3468 to 1017. For State Senate District 22 Anthony Musto lost to Marilyn Moore but Moore conceded before all the results were in. The incumbent Andres Ayala easily defeated Lydia Martinez, Ezequiel Santiago won big over Chico Rivera and Sly Salcedo, and State Rep. Chris Caruso won handily over City Councilman Carlos Silva.
The big story in Bridgport was Auden Grogins defeat over Robert Keeley. Keeley who held office in state legislature for 24 years,, the longest in Bridgport's history, was destroyed by Grogins from Black Rock.
Expert on Connecticut's politics Lenny Grimaldi, said on his blog that it all came down to the campaign strategy and hard work. In his explanation of the results Grimaldi said "Grogins worked hard and did a better job of defining Keeley’s lack of performance than he did defining his legislative seniority. Grogins ran close to Keeley in Keeley’s home precinct of Central by door knocking, phone calling and identifying pockets of Jewish voters underwhelmed by the incumbent’s performance."
In the Keeley-Grogins race that came down to absentee votes, Grogins won by a total of 94 votes.77 of those votes were absentees. Absentees seemed to be a gift for the caniddates but a curse for the registrar.
Around midnight on Tuesday Sandy and the team had sent out an official documents with, what was, the official results, but it was a mistake in communication and absentee department that had them working into the morning.
Everyone in the registrar was about to call it a day, then Sandy said "I told her to check the reports, three times I said it." After checking the results over Sandy and her team realizied that the absentee totals were off by 169 votes.
Off they were checking, adding, counting and tabulating the totals brought in by the 25 precincts throughout the city. On the first spread sheet with the final count Grogins won with a 100 odd votes, but as they counted and corrected the absentees Grogins' lead decreased.
Assistants ran back and forth trying to call the Connecticut Post, trying to tell them that there was a "mix up" with absentees and asked not to go to print.
Luckily in the fight to preserve honesty in democracy, the miscalculations in absentee votes didn't swing the winner in anyway.
A worker in the office said that this was not the first time the registrars had a problem with the absentee machines.
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