Brown: We’re Going To Court One Vote Down With Incomplete Results–Urges New Election Upon Vote Disparity

Statement From Marcus Brown campaign:

We are very disappointed to hear about the major recount issues and irregularities today with respect to the primary for State Representative for the 127th District. Today, the Head Moderator certified a result, based on the ballots and information they had available, that was a shocking 20 votes different from what was reported by the Registrar of Voters to the Secretary of State on Primary Day. Furthermore, election officials and observers in the room publicly acknowledge that 9 absentee ballots that were cast and counted by Primary Day are now mysteriously missing. After searching for them for a good part of the day, the unfortunate decision was to certify the incomplete results of this election.

The newly certified number, which is 20 votes less than what was reported last Tuesday, yielded a net loss of six votes for Brown, which is an extremely unlikely outcome in a recount of just over a thousand votes cast. But as questionable as that outcome may be, election officials acknowledge that the actual result of this election–with a margin of 1 vote that separates the candidates–is in serious doubt as they are unable to explain why there is a 20 vote difference between their counts today and last Tuesday, nor the whereabouts of the 9 missing absentee ballots.

On Primary Day, Democrat Marcus Brown overwhelmingly won all of the three polling locations on the machines. However, due to the significant number of absentee ballots from the Hennessy campaign, Brown’s lead over Hennessy according to the Registrar of Voters on Primary Day was 5 votes. The recount today resulted in an unusually high number of changes to the machine counts, absentee ballot counts, and hand counts, as well as missing ballots and incomplete numbers.

Needless to say, we will be immediately filing a motion in Superior Court to ask for a special election since the election results are now completely unreliable. We are very confident that a judge will find that these significant ballot counting and handling problems by election officials over the last week cast serious doubt on the true winner of this primary.

Bridgeport voters deserve that their votes will be counted accurately, honestly and transparently. It is clear that a special election will need to be ordered to determine the true will of the voters of the 127th District.