Here’s a partial, but-mostly complete transcript, typos and all, from Tom Foley’s avail this morning in downtown Hartford. SOTS is secretary of the state. Bpt is Bridgeport. Reporters’ questions are in parens or after numbers
Foley- 11-5-10 Goodwin Hotel Hartford
I first of all want to say I think it’s very unfortunate that the citizens of Connecticut have had to wait three days to get even preliminary results of the election and the votes that were cast Tuesday in the governor’s race.
I think it’s also very unfortunate that our office of the SOTS has reported results, which turned out to have been inaccurate and has represented the results that she’s reported as if they were final and official, which they are not.
This morning, Mayor Bill Finch in Bridgeport announced results, which we understand are actually different from the results that the registrar of voters in Bridgeport will be announcing and reporting to the office of the SOTS later this afternoon.
So Connecticut deserves better from its public officials.
We have one objective in mind here and that is to find out what the accurate count of the voters were in Tuesday’s election in the governor’s race. And until we know that we don’t want to make any decisions because this race is so close that the changes we’ve been seeing even in the last several days could tip the balance one way or the other.
If the Bridgeport results turn out to be what is reported to the office of the Secretary of the State, a 5,000-vote differential represents fewer votes than the changes in the office of the Secretary of the State’s reporting just yesterday. Towns are still revising their results. The office of the Secretary of the State’s revised Torrington’s numbers yesterday by 2,000 votes in my favor. So until we know what an accurate vote count is, we’re not going to be making any decisions here, because the citizens of Connecticut deserve to know who was legitimately elected their next mayor (sic).
What our plan is, we will ask for a meeting with the people of Bridgeport. We will invite Dan Malloy or members of his team to join us there to understand better what is in those vote results that they’ve been reporting there. There are as you know provisional ballots that were cast, there were paper ballots that were cast, there were stories of possible irregularities in Bridgeport and elsewhere around the state. So we need to understand whether or not when we get to the bottom of these things whether or not they would change the outcome of this race. Until we do, we’re not going to be making any decisions here. It may well be. I think that Connecticut’s citizens deserve to know with confidence what the voters decided on Tuesday and so we want to make sure that we have that confidence and we can make a decisions based on a complete understanding of what the legitimate vote was on Tuesday, so we’re going to take whatever time it takes to get there. We do not want to hold up a decision in this race, for the benefit of Connecticut getting on with its business, but I would like to say that Dan Malloyhas said he’s formed a transition team and he’s working toward preparing himself for office, to take office on January 5 and we’re doing the same, in case we’re the victors. So I don’t think either candidate is being held up preparing to take office by taking another couple of days to make sure we can have confidence in these results that are being reported.
I also would like to say that Connecticut deserves better. Connecticut deserves to know accurately what the result was of the vote on Tuesday and it may well take a recount to get that certainty. And I believe that Connecticut deserves to know what what the actual votes were cast on Tuesday in this race before decisions are made.
Questions
1) Prepared to pay for recount
I haven’t gotten to that point yet. I’m just saying that what I want and what I think the citizens of Connecticut deserve is an accurate count and it may well take a recount to have an accurate count.
2) statewide
It might be statewide, it might be just areas where there have been problems reported.
3) over 2,000 votes
There’s no automatic recount but there may well be plenty of basis for a recount even if it exceeds the automatic.
4) still no confident of results
Right now I’m not confident with the results and I don’t think anybody should be confident with these results based on what’s happened in the last three days.
5) meeting here with lawyers
No I’m meeting with my team.
6) Why is Bill Finch taking a role. I think it’s unfortunate that the citizens of CT have not gotten more responsible behavior from their public officials.
7)
We only have one objective in mind and that is finding out an accurate count of the votes cast on Tuesday.
8) what information need in Bopt
We have no idea how many paper ballots, provisional ballots. We don’t know what’s in these numbers.
We were excluded from the final tallies, when they summarized everything and what they’re prepared to report today to the SOTS office.
10) Ted hand count
11) when comfortable
We hope certainly within a couple of days.
12) but what has to happen
We have to feel with certainty that any changes in the numbers, and you know a lot of numbers have changed even within the last 24 hours. More than 20 towns have adjusted their numbers from our understanding. At least the SOTS’s website has adjusted more than 20 town’s numbers in the last 24 hours alone. Until the numbers stabilize we don’t kniow what the actual count will be.
13) Legal challenge
It’s a possibility but again until we know what the actual count is, those options are not being considered.
More questions same answers
Listen, in a race this close you know these numbers change and they’ve been changing. So we requested yesterday that she not announce results as official, because I don’t know what she means by official, but a person who doesn’t understand and a regular voter in Connecticut there’s no reason why they should know this, but when she says official, most people would assume that that means final and it’s not. These numbers are certain to change.
When she certifies results that’s the final number. But these numbers will change and they could change by the amount of this margin. Probably not but they could.
We had assumed fewer votes for Dan Malloy in Bridgeport than what it appears they’re going to report today.
I never said we were 2,000 up, I said we were within the margin of a recount.
As of yesterday I believe that if we knew the actual results of the vote on Tuesday we would have won. With these revisions we’ll have to assess that again.
I hope to resolve it before next week, but it’s going to take at least a couple of days. ….
Listen, we are being laughed at around this country and I have even had calls from internationally about this vote and what our public officials have done here. And I don’t want to create a situation where a result is declared here and then it’s changed. That could be even worse….
There’s always a claim that can be made if there’re irregularities in an election that a recount is warranted.
Listen, I have over 550,000 supporters in this state whose votes I’ve one and I haven’t heard from one of them who says they want anything other than for us to stick in here and make sure that this election was fair and that the ultimate vote count decision here is the one represents how citizens voted.
(Ted bag-o-ballots? Did you know the bag existed)
Absolutely not. I didn’t know and nobody in my campaign knew until it was announced yesterday afternoon, in the late afternoon.
(chain of custody)
I don’t know. All ballots are supposed to be counted the night of the election. So to count ballots three days later is unusual.
(what’s is like personally)
I spent 7 months in Iraq. I’m used to this. I’ve been pretty focused and I hope it shows how I’ve handled myself here on determing an accurate count for the vote on Tuesday.
(sore loser)
I’m determined to make sure that we don’t hold up the conclusion any longer than absolutely necessary to make sure there’s certainty about the results of the election.
(malloy declaration affect process)
I don’t know. I think it was unfortunate. I don’t think he should have done that. What his motives were I can’t say.
(:compare to Iraq)
Well, there aren’t any bullets flying…ha ha ha.
The Bpt numbers are coming in, apparently, less favorably for us than we thought they would yesterday
(me:prepare yourself for the loss)
Yes, of course. You wouldn’t get into politics if you weren’t , ha ha, hadn’t thought through and prepared yourself for not succeeding.