Plot thickens in 2nd CD recount

Simmons cuts into Courtney's lead.

Democrat Joe Courtney's lead in the 2nd Congressional District dropped to 66 votes Monday after officials in Lebanon discovered a math error that had given him 100 extra votes over Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, an election official said.

"It was human error," said Lebanon election moderator John Bendoraitis. "It was strictly misreading one number on one machine."

The revelation significantly tightens one of the closest congressional elections in the nation. Preliminary Election Day returns had Courtney winning by 167 votes out of nearly 250,000 ballots cast.

I guess Rob can thank Lieberman for getting out that Republican vote (both he and Shays owe Lieberman BIG TIME)...and Courtney can thank Mr. Independent-Democrat for throwing the State Democratic Party under the bus.

UPDATE: Gabe is at Courtney HQ and filed this report over at My Left Nutmeg.

No one is panicking - human errors like this happen, but not that often. Barring another error like this (and the next one could go in our favor), I would expect more 1-2 vote losses/gains - 60 is probably enough to hold up, but it could be slim enough to entice Simmons to challenge specific absentee and provisional ballots and ask for a recount of the optical scan ballots.

I'll try and bring you more updates as the recount continues.

UPDATE 2: 7:00 Courtney up by 66.