Connecticut voters on Aug. 11 rubber-stamped President Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in the state’s primary, which marked the final contest of the 2020 election season.
Biden won the state primary, securing about 84 percent of the vote with 23 percent of precincts reporting, in contrast to 12 percent for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Trump, meanwhile, won the GOP primary with more than 86 of the vote based on initial results, the Associated Press reported.
State officials had anticipated a large number of absentee ballots and a drop in voter numbers for the Connecticut contest due to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic. Before Tuesday’s primary elections, it had been twice delayed because of the pandemic.
Chairman J.R. Romano of Connecticut’s Republican party told the Epoch Times in April that Connecticut has complicated absentee ballot rules and no efficient mail-in ballot system to ensure voters can cast their vote in the elections.
“It’s a difficult process, with many steps for a voter to get an absentee ballot and as far as on-line ballot that can be downloaded—not everyone has access to printers.”
He continued, “Without a doubt, there will be a massive drop in numbers of voters because our state does not have a no-excuse ballot option.”
There were about 300,000 requests for absentee ballots for Connecticut’s primary, according to Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, who said the number is about 10 times the highest number absentee ballot requests for any election in the state.
Gov. Ned Lamont (D) on Monday signed an executive order giving election officials until Thursday to count absentee ballots, guaranteed that they are postmarked by Tuesday.
News that Biden won the state primary came just hours he announced he is selecting Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as his vice presidential pick.
“I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked [Harris]—a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants—as my running mate,” he wrote in an announcement on Tuesday.
“Back when Kamala was Attorney General, she worked closely with Beau,” his deceased son, Biden added. “I watched as they took on the big banks, lifted up working people, and protected women and kids from abuse. I was proud then, and I’m proud now to have her as my partner in this campaign.”
With just six days until the nominating convention, Biden was expected to choose a vice president this week.
Biden’s selection of Harris, 55, provides racial diversity and gender diversity in an attempt to appeal to a broader spectrum of the Democratic Party.
Harris’s mother was a breast cancer researcher who immigrated to the United States from India in the 1960s, while her father, Donald Harris, originally from Jamaica, is an economist who worked for Stanford University in the Bay Area and a staunch Marxist. The two divorced when Kamala Harris was young, according to Politico.
If Biden, 77, suffers a health issue while in office, Harris would take over as president. Earlier this year, Biden told reporters that “I’m an old guy,” and he would need someone who could “immediately” take over.
Jack Phillips, Masooma Haq and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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