CONNECTICUT, USA — Overnight, election results from all over Connecticut funneled in, causing the races to be declared into the evening and overnight.
Nationally, Donald Trump was officially declared as the winner of the presidency by 5:30 a.m. Wednesday by the Associated Press.
All five congressional districts in the state have reelected their incumbent, meaning Reps. Jim Himes, Rosa DeLauro, John Larson, Joe Courtney, and Jahana Hayes will return to Washington, D.C., in January. Hayes was up against Republican challenger George Logan, who had previously challenged her in the 2022 race. He officially conceded the race at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D) will also keep his seat for another term with his race called at 8:07 p.m. Tuesday, under 10 minutes after polls closed.
Vice President Kamala Harris was also declared the winner of Connecticut's seven electoral college votes by the Associated Press promptly after the polls closed.
This year marked the ninth consecutive presidential election in which Connecticut voters favored the Democratic candidate. The last Republican presidential candidate to win the state was George H.W. Bush in 1988. Former President Donald Trump has now lost Connecticut three times, first to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, then to Joe Biden, and now to Harris.
Connecticut also approved a constitutional change to the state's elections, easing restrictions on mail-in voting. The amendment lifted long-standing restrictions that only allowed people in the state to vote by absentee ballot if they were going to be out of town, were sick or disabled, or couldn't get to a polling location because of religious restrictions.
Passage of the amendment doesn't automatically mean Connecticut will join the 36 states that allow people to vote by mail without needing an excuse for not going to a polling place in person. However, it gives state lawmakers the ability to enact laws that allow for more widespread mail-in voting, according to Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas.
Thomas, a Democrat, had recommended that if the amendment passed, legislators should take a year to research and design a "holistic" system that also includes early voting and voting in person.
There was also a large turnout for the state's first general election with early voting. Thomas reported that over 740,000 residents cast a ballot two weeks before election day. There was an issue with 1,100 ballots in North Stonington after human error resulted in some sealed envelopes not being signed by the voter. But, as of Nov. 3, Thomas said 900 of those votes were fixed.
Not many incidents were reported at the polls in Connecticut either.
An isolated incident was reported out of East Lyme, where a man was arrested for disorderly conduct after harassing town election officials and others at a polling location. The GOP registrar said that although he was a registered voter, he refused to show identification or sign an affidavit to vote without it. Officials said the man went to the community center to launch a complaint, arguing with town officials, who called the police.
There were also some issues with tabulators in towns. Still, Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas said that issues were expected due to the tabulators being nearly 20 years old, and each town had a plan to handle them. Connecticut will get new, state-of-the-art machines beginning in the summer of 2025.
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Jennifer Glatz is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jglatz@fox61.com.
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