Afternoon Update
: Tonight at 6 I’ll be at City Lights on Markle Court downtown for a review and discussion of the Accidental Mayor, the documentary that shadows John Fabrizi’s mayoralty. Stop in. Lots to chat about.
Bill Finch announced the Bridgeport vote totals for governor shortly after 6 a.m. today. Democrat Dan Malloy 17,800, Republican Tom Foley 4075. The total puts Malloy over the top, pending final certification, and presumably an official announcement today by Connecticut Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz in this bizarre election season. But let’s not assume anything!
The results Finch shared did not include ballots cast between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. per order of a state judge. Overall with those results factored in as well as Malloy votes from the Working Families Party line Malloy had 17,973 to Foley’s 4099, according to the registrar’s tabulation and now loaded on the Secretary of the State’s elections results on line. The results were delivered to SuBy’s office this afternoon. That’s 22,072 votes cast in total for the two top candidates for governor leading their respective tickets and several thousand votes less than the original numbers included in the unofficial total released Wednesday morning. SOTS election stats: www.statementofvote-sots.ct.gov/StatementOfVote/WebModules/ReportsLink/OfficeTitle.aspx
So the city’s Registrar of Voters office printed 21,000 ballots, but then was required to make copies of thousands more ballots during the chaotic election day ballot shortage, even though roughly 22,000 cast a vote for governor. What gives? If the numbers presented to Finch after an all-night and -morning precinct calculation by election officials are correct the explanation may be that half the voting precincts received more than enough ballots while the allocation was terribly low for the remainder. Most of the shortages came in the higher-turnout areas. Still, the discrepancy is bizarre. The last several days an election nightmare.
So many unanswered questions. How many votes were not cast because electors walked away in disgust Election Day?
I don’t think we’ve heard the last of this. The GOP will probably challenge in court.
I wish Finch would distance himself from the rest of the inept supervisors in this city. Santa is not the only one who is way over her head.
I wish Finch and his cronies would distance themselves from this city, period!
Do the math … allegedly 21,000 ballots printed. (Let’s see the receipt) … 21,000 votes cast. So why so many copied ballots that need to be hand counted? Lots of finger pointing.
Inept workers are only hired by inept managers. Ayala needs to go, NOW. Finch needs to take some blame if his policies led dept heads to take shortcuts like not having enough poll workers.
BTW, 21,000 voters doesn’t seem to indicate a massive tide because of Obama’s visit. After all, the ROV “ordered” a number of ballots based on a 3-year average.
There’s a lot more to this story that will be covered up by the Finch Administration. Now that it’s over and Malloy won, I hope Gomes and Caruso start to nail Finch and his “team.”
Washington changed in 2008 and got a shakeup in 2010. Hartford saw change in 2010. Let’s pray that 2011 brings long-needed change in Bridgeport.
The ballot is not one size fits all–there are two state senate districts in Bpt and six representative districts–so one school may have had surplus ballots and another district could be short ballots.
Although it won’t happen, some of the problem could be eliminated if there were fewer polling places–and you would then have more workers at fewer locations.
I have worked with the absentee ballot count for over 25 years and unless you develop a rhythm to the count it can be long and tedious–that’s what hand-counting can be like.
Let’s not reduce polling paces because 2 people did not properly do their jobs. Parking at many of these locations is limited at best.
Election-day checkers and moderators should be paid more money than they are now. There are not too many people willing to put in a 15-hour day for what they pay.
When will everyone realize this city has been run into the ground by incompetence and ineptitude at all levels for which no one has ever suffered any consequences? One incompetent boob covers for the other incompetent boob. How else would people like these even have jobs? If you do happen to have either half a brain or any semblance of a work ethic and could not be easily manipulated and controlled, you’d be considered a threat and eliminated. Instead of trying to attract the best and brightest, Bridgeport prefers the worst and dimmest. Hopefully this voting fiasco has exposed Bridgeport’s warts for the rest of the state to see.
Also–notwithstanding Obama’s visit to Bridgeport which should have prompted ordering of more tickets, how many other communities order fewer ballots than registered voters? If not for this fiasco everyone would be arguing that it would be a waste of money to order a ballot for every possible voter when you know not everyone votes all the time.
If I were a newspaper reporter checking on this ballot mess, I would check on the percentage of ballots ordered per precinct, rather than the number of ballots ordered city-wide. Some precincts nearly always vote at a higher percentage of registered voters than others.
The precincts with ballot shortages are spread out. It did not happen everywhere, it seems. Why?
Callahan,
If you were a newspaper reporter you would still be in Bridgeport.
The Oracle of Bridgeport Mistakes!
This will end up being Caruso Redux but with a different result. Court will order a new election in the 12 polling places. It will not be a recount issue in the complaint but an incompetence issue based on rulings by the two Registrars and the “but for” actions of those Registrars.
“I can assure you that every vote was counted,” said Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch at an early morning news conference Friday. “Every paper vote was counted, there are no hanging chads.”
Like everyone else is asking, why then such a huge discrepancy in the number of ballots?
Mayor Finch. “The Registrar of Voters is in charge of ordering ballots and running the elections for the City of Bridgeport, and by extension, for the office of the Secretary of the State. I want to be clear: At no time did the City ask that the Registrar spend less money to purchase ballots. We would never let money stand in the way of ensuring that every voter have the chance to exercise his or her inalienable right to vote in a free democracy. For the Registrars to even think of using that as an excuse for causing such distress for so many of our residents is indefensible and inexcusable.”
When they say it’s not about the money, it’s about the money!
The mayor should not comment about another facet of this election until he has received a report form his White-Ribbon Panel.
Every time he speaks out like this he is making suggestions to his commission. Shut up. Do not comment again. Do not make any public statement in front of the panel. Let them do their work and let the chips fall where they may.
Isn’t the Good Saint Nick on the pad? Who is in Bill’s wallet???
This is going to be like another Bridgeport study that borrows our watch to tell us what time it is.
Once again we suffer from Electile Dysfunction!!!
So is the mayor saying if the registrar wanted to print one ballot per voter he would have allowed that to happen? BS.
Is the mayor saying the registrar can spend as much money as he/she wants regardless of what is in their operating budget? More BS.
Is the mayor saying he and his OPM department are not responsible for creating a proposed budget and forwarding the same to the council for approval? Additional BS.
No matter how much the mayor is trying to duck responsibility for any of this fiasco, it doesn’t wash. The duck stops here!!!
Statement from Deputy City Attorney Arthur Laske Re: Irresponsible Assertions Regarding Handling of Ballots
“Any allegation that there were missing, or newly discovered ballots by the attorney for the Foley campaign is entirely incorrect. The assertion that there is any impropriety regarding the processing of written ballots from one of the Bridgeport voting precincts by Foley’s counsel is completely irresponsible.”
Any effort by the city to duck responsibility is totally irresponsible. The duck stops here.
The GOP will challenge this election to enable them to get a second bite of the apple.
General Election Law language contains a phrase that basically says that: “… but for the actions of” the Registrars of Voters [in this case], the voters in the 12[?] polling precincts were disenfranchised to cast their votes.
The “but for” phrase is not contained primary election language and it was for the lack of the “but for”” clause that enabled Judge John Blawie to rule against Caruso in primary of 2007 that was later upheld by the State Supreme Court.
Judges are very hesitant to get involved in elections. Judge George Thim in 2001 ordered a new election at the Roosevelt School precinct after a lever machine had not been properly tested and resulted in two positions posting zero votes for (D) Auden Grogins and (R) Thomas Freer.
Grogins initiated the action with compelling scientific evidence by a statistical expert that claimed you would have a better chance of a 1200-lb. man walking into the room than this happening on a voting machine. I guess that would be considered “Fat Chance” testimony.
The Republicans will go to court seeking another election with the hope of creating a lower turnout at those 12 polling stations, thus cutting into the Bridgeport Malloy numbers and turning around the Malloy present plurality of 3100 statewide.
The Dems in Bridgeport did a Herculean pulling job in this election but could end up getting a hand job from the Republicans.
Once again the people are getting ducked.
To my friend Common Good … are you trying to make a case for incompetence? If the ROV decides to order ballots based on an average, is it too much to expect that it be done by district? They only have 364 days to prepare for the event!!!
As to a hand-counting rhythm, this is 2010 and technology is there if we choose to use it and reduce hand counting. Even absentees could be put on readable paper. Trusting things to hand counting make them more susceptible to human error.
Techno improvements might mean less workers and less support to the Democratic machine. It all boils down to self interests and I hope we’re all learning a lesson about one-party control.
Absentees are on readable paper.
I was talking about prior years when absentees were hand counted–even though there is no longer a party lever most people don’t split their votes–sorting ballots and then counting splits was more efficient and accurate than reading each name and hash marks.
And then you added all the votes for top office to be see if the count was accurate–so if you started with 100 ballots and total for Gov was only 90–recheck your count.
The new machines only got us into the 20th century even though we are in the 21st century.
At 50 cents a ballot and say 50% participation, we would have wasted $18,750 on unused ballots–so I am not excusing the ROV but I am saying it’s reasonable to assume not everyone registered is going to vote.
It is also disingenuous for the SOS to say should be 110% order–if so why procedures to photocopy ballots?–all ballots burn on election day?
By suggesting Bridgeport might be theKingmaker in the recent election Lennie Grimaldi has confirmed his position as the all-knowing authority on Bridgeport politics.
NO MATTER WHO becomes Governor, Lennie will be shown to be correct in predicting the determining factor in the election’s outcome.
… and remember, he’s the same guy who bought you a cocktail at a recent OIB party!
These numbers seem to be way off. 21,000 no way, votes were not counted Mr. Finch.
AP has 19,148 for Malloy and Foley 6502 with only 60% of precincts reporting!!! These totals are way off, did they just give up and stop counting because 22,000 total ballots is bullshit when the AP had 26,0000 ballots and only 60% reporting. I want answers!!!
Note to all Bpt residents there is a 50-50 chance your ballot was not counted. More than 22,000 people cast there ballots but the register of voters stopped counting. Can we get answers as to why the number is 6 to 7 thousand votes less??? A Foley campaign representative who sat in on the overnight counting noted the Bridgeport tallies had changed during the tally process.
Was Working Family included? These numbers don’t add up so I urge Bpt residents to sit out until 2012 because your votes will not be counted and Ayala is a crook.
*** Only solution to this is the “People’s Court,” after all it is entertainment, no? Maybe Judge Judy will order another election just for Bpt after all the money city hall has saved in the last 3 years of this admin. *** wink ***
A wise man once said “LIARS CAN FIGURE, but FIGURES DON’T LIE.”
So Hector, figure this one out for me.
The 2010 budget had $51,747 in operating expenses.
This was for a budget year that included a potential town committee primary and a municipal election that included only City Council and Board of Education.
The 2011 proposed budget had $50,076. This was for a budget year that included potential primaries for US Senate, Governor, US Representative and other constitutional officers as well as State Senate and Representative races as well as the general election for the same.
And yet their operating budget went down slightly. What do you figure the mayor is talking about when he says he would not do anything that would negatively impact a voter’s right to vote?
Last night while at work, I noticed a memo posted in the elevator at the Bridgeport Police Department. The memo was to inform the members of the police union local 1159 that at their November 8, 2010 union meeting, Councilmen Bob Walsh will be addressing the members of 1159. I thought to myself, it looks like Bob read my OIB post. On that post, I didn’t quite suggest a speech at a union meeting. I suggested that he speak with Patrolmen, Detectives, Sergeants and Captains about policing matters. The question that remains to be answered now is, will Bob Walsh meet with NAGE members as well as the other city employee unions? Good luck trying to arrange a meeting with NAGE. NAGE meetings are as rare as a Puerto Rican U.S. Senator. The leadership is pretty comfortable as they have gotten raises and continue to reap $ from favoritism in overtime. Kudos to Bob Walsh for being the only Councilperson–as far as I know–to take the time to speak and listen to police officers. BTW, Bob make sure you arrange a day in which you can go on PaTroll with a Patrolman. I assure you there are Trolls in the Bridgeport police force.
Joel,
That’s interesting since no one asked me to do so. Are you sure you’ve got that right?
Yes, “Bob Walsh.” An officer had stated it was you when I asked if it was the councilman. I checked with someone else and it turns out that the Bob Walsh isn’t you.
“This Bob Walsh is better looking,” said the officer.
I still stand by my suggestion to you and I’m not taking the “Kudos” back. Any other councilmember would have let it go just to sound and look good.
Corporate Politics never sleeps:
MSNBC President Phil Griffin announces Keith Olbermann suspended indefinitely without pay, after political contributions
Help me out, does “suspended indefinitely without pay” mean FIRED?
I hope it means he is fired. It fine to have a different view than your counterparts but he was unnecessarily nasty.
*** No doubt FOX had a hand in this somehow, no? ***
Leonard,
There is still another explanation as to the discrepancy with the ballots …
The city is still missing more bags!!!
What is the total number of votes cast per the number of names crossed off by the official checks?
Curiouser and curiouser.
Great point Grin.
From what I understand, not all polling places asked for ID or checked names off, so auditing those records won’t help. And all I can say is take one look at the pic of the folks doing the ballot counting. They look more like a bunch of vagrants hanging out at an OTB parlor.
There won’t be any more missing ballot bags turning up. We already have enough votes–no point in overkill.
just kidding 🙂
The City of Bridgeport lacks perspicacity.
It all depends on whose ox is being gored. If the numbers were different the Dems would be jumping up and down.
You can’t believe in Santa and Say-it-ain’t-so-Joe.
Santa was just on TV and admitted she violated a state statute.
22,000 ballots my ass I’m sure if you look on the checklist that’s not the case … this is a fraud city where they do not count votes.
Yet you continued to support the candidates presented to you by that very same fraud machine.
Let’s think about $ concerns everywhere, use of available technology and heads up Voter Registration next time around.
* Bulk orders for ballots should bring costs way down. How about 169 towns all supplied by the same printing firm, even if special paper is indicated? There is a “regional concept.” The templates for each community can be prepared in advance by the local Registrar and forwarded to the Secretary of State electronically. Both sides need to provide OK.
* Numbers of appropriate ballots of the correct type and advisable count (less than 100%) for the determined polling places can be entered and confirmed at State and local office, and when printed delivered directly to the locality.
* Training sessions for all participants should be available on line at libraries or home computers. Completion of training will be required for all levels of hiring. And continuing ed each election cycle will be required.
Any more progressive, cost-saving and citizen-serving ideas? Thank you.
*** Results or no results the damage is done & more than likely the courts will have to settle the final outcome. If voters forget the good & focus on the bad for the next local elections then the present admin. might be in trouble, no? *** Time will tell ***
This is a very sad situation. We pay some of the highest taxes in the country and the return we get for that is incompetence. How does something like this happen in the largest city in Connecticut? Our elected officials should be ashamed. The city of Bridgeport continues to have its named used in the public media for events that only happen in third-world developing countries. It is hard to believe. The voting taxpayers of the city deserve an apology and a clean slate from elected officials who serve only themselves and ignore the citizens of the city. Bridgeport has wonderful assets that are underutilized. It is not hard to understand why when you see that its elected officials cannot even handle the most basic of rights. The right to vote. It is mind boggling.
If the ROVs refuse to resign is it possible for the residents of Bridgeport to petition for recall of the Registrar of Voters under state statutes or Bridgeport charter?
CG: The residents of Bridgeport got exactly what they deserve. The overall lack of interest in what’s happening in this city is their fault.
*** T/C, You should know, you’re on the DTC that endorses these candidates! *** FORGETABOUTIT ***
Countdown: one of the culprits has left and by the time you get enough signatures and get people off their ass it will be time for her reelection. There is a possibility she would get the nomination or win a primary to get the nomination. Remember in this city the party rules.
TC specifically how does a recall work? What is the process?
Countdown I don’t know the procedure but I do know there is no recall provision for the mayor so I assume there is no procedure for the other elected offices. It’s called job security.