Connecticut Governor: New Ballots Boost Dem Dan Malloy, but GOP's Tom Foley Could Challenge in Court

Connecticut Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley talks with reporters at his campaign office in Stamford, Conn., Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010.

/ AP Photo/Charles Krupa

Amid news that Democrat Dan Malloy appears to have the votes to win Connecticut's embattled gubernatorial race, Republican Tom Foley now says he may challenge the vote totals, according to the Associated Press.

In a press conference this morning, Foley left the door open to a possible legal challenge and urged Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz to postpone the official announcement of a victor, due to myriad delays, errors, and confusion that have plagued the state's electoral process.

"We are being laughed at around this country," Foley said, according to the New Haven Independent. "I don't want to create a situation where a result is declared here and then it's changed ... Let's just take our time."

Foley's statement came after the revelation this morning of Bridgeport's final vote count, which appeared to put Malloy over the top. According to the Hartford Courant, Malloy received 17,973 votes in the heavily Democratic city, as compared to Foley's 4,099.

According to the Courant, the numbers now appear to show Malloy leading Foley with 566,351 votes to Foley's 560,886 - a difference of 5,465. Connecticut state law requires a recount only if the final vote tally shows two candidates within 2,000 votes of each other.

Current AP vote tallies also put Malloy ahead, with 565,508 votes to Foley's 559,268 - a margin of 6,240.

Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz, Connecticut's top polling official, is expected to officially announce Malloy's victory after the Bridgeport votes were delivered to her in Hartford.

Full Connecticut Results
All Election 2010 Results
All Governor 2010 Results

A series of missteps in the Connecticut voting process have complicated the resolution of an already-close race. On Tuesday night, a number of voters were given photocopied ballots after several polling stations ran out of official ballots. A state judge then ordered 12 polling stations to stay open an additional two hours - the legality of which some questioned - and the photocopied ballots were counted by hand.

Bysiewicz declared Malloy winner of the race on Wednesday night, but by Thursday was still unable to reveal a final vote count. As of Thursday, both Malloy and Foley had announced the formation of transition teams.

Yesterday, Mayor Finch also revealed that a bag of 336 unopened ballots were belatedly found at a polling site, according to the New York Times. (Those ballots were counted and included in the final tally.)

Finch, however, maintains that he does not anticipate encountering any problems with the Bridgeport votes. "I can assure you that every vote in Bridgeport was counted, and counted accurately," he said. "There are no hanging chads here. Every vote was counted, period."

26 Photos

Election Winners and Losers

---

Lucy Madison is a political reporter for CBSNews.com. You can read more of her posts here. Follow Hotsheet on Facebook and Twitter.

[LIBERALS-lie]

cry and complain like a DEMOCRAT and you get your way

[GulfFrit]

Notice how lately whenever a Democrat loses a close race, they find a "bag of votes"? If not for one of those "bag of votes" Al Franken wouldn't have a seat in the Senate now. I hear the Sec. of State in CT is a Dem, so there's no chance Foley will get a fair chance.
Oh well, I guess it could be worse - 'see the report about how Dem. Harry Reid used his union thugs to force people to vote for him?!

[KeithDrippingSprings]

I don't like Al Franken but the vote was fair and the most litigated result in a long time. The person who got the votes got the job.

[gthog]

It sure does seem every time one of these "events" pops up it's usually the democrats doing the screwing up. I wonder why that is?

Even in FL in 2000 it was democrat officials who designed the ballots that were too sophisticated for democrat voters to figure out.

I thought they were all so much "smarter" than we are.

[smehl1506]

Speaking of Florida, Foley doesn't have to worry. Just like Bush, he'll always be able to rely on the Justice Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and the gang to cover his back.

[sjc_1]

The 5-4 Republican Supreme Court stopped the vote count and cited "equal protection". True equal protection is making sure that ALL votes are counted. We have all suffered many years for that wrong "decision" and it will go down as one of the worst in history.

[stn_sage]

I think any candidate 'who comes up on the short side of the vote', should consider the recount option! But, if Foley was cheated, it's going to be extremely difficult to prove! And, then the public is penalized as a result of wasted time, money, and potential loss of representation! So, a challenger needs to realize, that he may be damaging any future candidacies by launching a challenge that he doesn't win! Many people won't forgive him/her for that!

[smehl1506]

Just like the former Speaker of the House, this Tom Foley is also going down!

[billmelater59]

Gee, now why would people be suspicious? Bysiewicz (a partisian democrat) virtually pulls a muscle running to call a press conference to announce the results based on phoned in numbers and half-assed estimates within hours of the election. Then all the problem are in Bridgeport, one of th most corrupt cities in the state. The disaster is just anothe example of a dysfunctional state Connecticut has become. If a recount is necessary to establish trust in the outcome, so be it.

[billmelater59]

Why should anyone be surprised. It's just another symptom of just how broken this state is. And what do we do? We re-elect nearly all of the people who brought us this mess.

[OnTheRoad01]

It is really amazing that the U.S. can't come up with a fool proof method of voting where we know who the winner is quickly and correctly. I mean we can test the 'fool proof' part by allowing members of Congress (both the House and the Senate) to try it first. If they can vote and not mess it up then normal people should be able to handle it with no problems!!!!

[nomossonmyrocks]

That's right, waste tax-payers money with a recount. That will help things along on the right path.

[ajvw]

you're right. It would be a shame to get it right.