CT certifies election results, despite data discrepancies in some towns

State officials certified Connecticut's 2024 election winners Wednesday, even as results on the state website continued to show minor data discrepancies in several towns.

A spokesperson for the Secretary of the State's office said Wednesday afternoon that race results were final but that election statistics (such as turnout numbers) could still be tweaked through the end of the day.

Last week, CT Insider identified at least eight towns with apparent errors in their 2024 election data, as part of a broader review of results over the past three presidential elections. Of those towns, four had fixed their discrepancies as of Wednesday evening, while four more — Torrington, Norfolk, North Canaan and New Milford — continued to show irregularities.

In each case, the apparent errors involve discrepancies between the number of people said to have voted in a given town and the number of votes tallied in races there. In Torrington and Norfolk, unofficial results show more votes in the presidential race than voters who cast ballots, while in North Canaan and New Milford they show far fewer votes than voters who cast ballots.

None of the discrepancies appear to have affected the outcomes of any races, though they may have impacted margins of victories for candidates.

Registrars and town clerks say data mistakes typically owe to human error. Discrepancies did not follow any obvious partisan pattern, occurring in both Democratic and Republican-leaning towns and cities, and CT Insider found no indication of fraud or intentional manipulation.

In an interview last week, Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas said that while the state has no legal obligation to review results towns submit, her office would review the 2024 numbers for "any obvious data entry issues." Asked this week for more information about that review, a spokesperson for Thomas declined to answer directly, saying only that "the towns have been working on reviewing the data."

A representative from the Torrington registrar's office said this week the error owed to a mix-up involving same-day registrations, while registrars in the other three towns with lingering errors did not respond to requests for comment.

In past years, errors have sometimes gotten past any review processes at the local and state levels and been certified as final. In a review of 2016 and 2020 numbers, CT Insider found at least 10 examples of data discrepancies in certified results, including one in a state legislative race determined by only 85 votes.

The Secretary of the State spokesperson declined this week to say whether a mechanism exists for retroactively changing certified numbers, saying only that, "We do not review past results."

In response to CT Insider's reporting, lawmakers from both major political parties, as well as the ACLU of Connecticut, called for a close look at how incorrect results were certified and what could be done to prevent the same from happening again in the future.

Under Connecticut law, results in federal elections must be certified on the final Wednesday of the month in which they are cast, while results in state elections must be certified by the end of the month. In a statement Wednesday about the certification of results, Thomas described a successful 2024 election cycle, which included the roll-out of early voting in Connecticut for the first time ever.

"Connecticut saw over 76% turnout and the successful implementation of early voting this election cycle," Thomas said. "I am grateful to the registrars, town clerks, polling place workers and those that played an important role in ensuring a fair, transparent and secure 2024 election."

The certified results formalize Kamala Harris' victory over Donald Trump in Connecticut, as well as Sen. Chris Murphy's reelection and victories for all five of the state's incumbent U.S. representatives.

Mistakes corrected — and not corrected

Over the course of the past week, as CT Insider has reported on election data, the state has fixed errors on its site, leaving only four noticeable discrepancies.

• In Torrington, turnout statistics show 16,127 voters, yet the city's results show 16,296 votes cast in the presidential race. A representative from the Torrington registrar's office said this week the city's numbers appear incorrect because election workers had failed to properly record same-day registrations as part of voter turnout statistics. She said she did not know if or when the results would be updated on the state website.
• In Norfolk, turnout statistics show 1,023 voters, yet the town's results show 1,037 votes cast in the presidential election. Registrars in Norfolk did not respond to questions this week.
• In North Canaan, turnout statistics show 1,715 voters, yet the town's results show only 1,405 votes cast in the presidential race. A North Canaan registrar acknowledged the discrepancy in the town's election data earlier this month and said the town had submitted updated numbers to the state, but as of Wednesday the figures on the state site had not changed. North Canaan's registrars did not respond to further questions this week.
• In New Milford, turnout statistics show 16,006 voters, yet the town's results show 13,560 votes cast in the presidential race. Registrars in New Milford did not respond to questions this week.

As for the towns that appear to have fixed discrepancies in their results:

• In Stratford, officials adjusted the results of the presidential race, fixing an error that had led to Donald Trump being credited with an additional 449 votes. DeCilio, the town's Republican registrar, said the discrepancy was the result of an input error in one of the town's 19 districts and that he found the mistake after reading CT Insider's reporting.
• Southington and Plainfield both updated the number of people reported to have voted in the town, correcting discrepancies there. In these cases, results themselves (i.e. who received how many votes) did not change.
• Trumbull has updated both its results — which now include 260 fewer votes for Kamala Harris and 326 fewer for Trump than before — and its turnout statistics so that the town no longer shows more votes than voters.

Additional data errors were corrected earlier this month after CT Insider reached out to state and local officials to ask about them.

Registrars and town clerks say errors often owe to a combination of over-tired workers at the end of a long day and an election management system susceptible to errors. Once election results come in on Election Night, registrars must manually add results from tabulators together with absentee ballots, same-day registration ballots and early voting numbers, then enter it into the state's system.

"It's a really long process to enter those numbers into this state's elections management system," DeCilio said.

Thomas said last week she hopes new software the state plans to roll out next year will help reduce errors.