Not until Preston’s voting results made the road trip to Hartford Wednesday — via a state police trooper — did elections officials have all the votes in.

Av Harris, spokesman for the secretary of the state, said the state had been waiting only on results from Preston to complete the tally of votes statewide. They went up on the state elections website around 12:30 p.m.

Overnight and into Wednesday morning, the three-way race for lieutenant governor was too close to call, and it appeared there might have to be a recount.

Towns have the option to have their elections moderators fax in the results, take them to Hartford or give them to state police to deliver.

Parke Spicer, the Preston Republican registrar of voters, said Moderator Ted Powell delivered the “moderator’s returns” to state police at Troop E at 9 p.m. Tuesday.

Powell said he took the tallies to Troop E and got his receipt. “I just followed procedures in the moderator’s handbook,” he said.

The Preston results for the gubernatorial primary race were: 80 votes for Tom Foley and 55 votes for John McKinney. For the lieutenant governor race, they were: 71 for Heather Bond Somers, 40 for David Walker and 25 for Penny Bacchiochi, Spicer said.

Results were due to the secretary of the state’s office by 6 p.m. Wednesday. Jennifer Page, the lead dispatcher for the consolidated dispatch center in Tolland, which includes Troop E, said Wednesday morning that state troopers still had time to deliver primary results.

Some moderators send the results electronically, while others like to have a receipt from the state police barracks in their region, Page said.

“We didn’t create the law,” Harris said. “Nobody can operate outside of the law. We can’t. The law says you can deliver your results or you can fax them. … It’s clearly not the most efficient way to get the results, but it’s the law.”

j.somers@theday.com

Twitter@johannasomers1