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West Haven mayoral race too close to call despite Rossi claiming victory

The Democrat mayor is winning by a slim margin of 24 votes, according to her campaign.

WEST HAVEN, Conn. — The mayoral race in West Haven still has no projected winner, despite incumbent Mayor Nancy Rossi declaring victory in front of her supporters Tuesday night.

According to numbers from her campaign, Rossi is winning by a slim margin of 24 votes over her Republican challenger Barry Lee Cohen. If these numbers remain, the margin would trigger an automatic recount.

“Yes, right now we are declaring victory,” Rossi said. “[We’re] very excited. It’s been a hard fight and a rough few weeks as everybody knows.”

RELATED: Election Day 2021 results: Connecticut's contested mayoral races

The West Haven mayor race has been overshadowed by the recent federal fraud allegations against former State Rep. Michael DiMassa, who was charged with misusing more than $600,000 of the city’s pandemic relief aid.

“I understand that I’m at the top of the city, but I’m going to do my best to move forward,” Rossi said, bringing up the scandal on Tuesday. “We are going to find out with the forensic audit what exactly happened and do our best to fix it so that it doesn’t happen again.”

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Her opponent also sized the opportunity to bring up the scandal. He said he would not concede, saying it would be a disservice to voters.

“I don’t’ know if it’s a victory in a 5 to 1 Democrat to Republican town,” Cohen said. “For her to declare [a] victory of 24 votes, which is much less than the 5,100 votes she got last time – this is basically a condemnation of her record of lack of transparency.”

RELATED: 'We crushed it' | New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker wins 2nd term after Republican challenger concedes

Both campaigns said they welcome the recount because they want all voters’ voices to be heard.

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