Democrat Joe Courtney’s lead over Republican Rep. Rob Simmons grew to 109 votes Monday, after dipping to as low as 66 votes earlier in the day.
The roller-coaster recount in one of the closest congressional races in the nation has uncovered significant errors in two communities. Preliminary Election Day returns had Courtney winning by 167 votes out of nearly 250,000 ballots cast in the 2nd Congressional District.
Officials in Lebanon discovered Monday that Courtney was given an extra 100 votes over Simmons. “It was human error,” said Lebanon election moderator John Bendoraitis. “It was strictly misreading one number on one machine.”