Vermont primary election results are certified

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont’s primary election results have been certified after a delay caused by a technical issue, Secretary of State Jim Condos announced Tuesday.

The vote tallies and winners in the Aug. 9 primary were certified as official at a meeting of the canvassing committee on Monday, he said.

“The tri-partisan certification of election results as official is an important step in verifying the accuracy and integrity of our election results,” Condos said in a statement. “Vermonters deserve to have 100% confidence that official vote totals accurately reflect the ballots cast by voters. That is why results are carefully reviewed and certified by a member of each major political party.”

Of the 133,578 ballots cast, 809 were deemed defective, his office said. Of those, 492 were cured by voters under the new ballot curing provisions of Vermont’s election law, leaving 317 defective ballots that were unable to be counted, he said. That amounts to a very low defective ballot rate under 0.25%, he said.

The secretary of state’s office said a week ago that the certification was delayed because a state contractor has been unable to resolve a technology issue affecting the office’s ability to produce reports from votes submitted by town and city clerks.