Votes Still Being Counted in Conn. Primary Election Amid Ongoing Pandemic

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The votes are in for the presidential primary and there were no surprises.

President Donald Trump won the Republican bid and Joe Biden won the Democratic ticket.

Results are still coming in for other races in the state.

This was the first year we've had a ballot box to drop in an absentee ballot and these boxes were seeing more traffic than actual poling places.

It's because 300,000 people across the state requested an absentee ballot after COVID-19 was added to the list of eligible excuses.

There was a backlog in sending out those ballots from the mail house and some voters received them just days before the race.

About 20,000 ballots had to be reissued because of a mailing delay.

Republicans criticized Secretary of the State Denise Merrill for the mishandling of the expanded absentee system, but Merrill said it was an unprecedented situation.

"We will definitely look at everything that happened.  Certainly, lots of lessons learned. On the other hand, you have to remember 300,000 people got to vote by absentee ballot, where usually we have about 20,000.  It was a tall order from the beginning," Merrill said.

Voters rubber-stamped Republican Donald Trump and Democratic Former Vice President Joe Biden.

There were also two GOP Congressional primaries to determine who will face long-serving Democrats in November.

Governor Ned Lamont signed an executive order that gives election officials until Thursday to count the ballots as long as they were post marked by Tuesday.

Looking ahead to November, all voters will be able to vote absentee.

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