City Councilman Bob “Troll” Walsh in this video urges election workers at Central High School to handle substitute ballots correctly amidst the ballot shortage chaos that occurred at 12 city voting precincts. The video was apparently taken by Vernon Mayor Jason McCoy, a GOP poll monitor. Troll appears to be warning election workers not to mix the substitute ballots with the official ballots. A city police officer steps in. What a hoot!
News release from Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz:
Secretary Bysiewicz Releases Official Vote Totals From Governor’s Race
Secretary of the State Receives Head Moderator’s Return from Bridgeport; Malloy 566,498 Foley 560,861 – No Statewide Recount
Hartford: Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz today released the official results from the November 2, 2010 general election for Governor. As of 6:00 p.m. on Friday November 5th, the figures show Dan Malloy receiving 566,498 votes and Tom Foley receiving 560,861 votes statewide. Overall, Malloy received 540,505 votes on the Democratic party line and another 25,993 votes on the Working Families party line, adding up to a total of 566,498 votes statewide. Republican Tom Foley received 560,861 votes. Given the plurality of 5,637 votes, this final result exceeds the 2,000 vote margin necessary under state law to trigger an automatic statewide recount. Therefore, there will be no statewide recount.
Secretary Bysiewicz said, “As Secretary of the State, it is my job to make sure that everyone’s voice is heard and that every vote is counted. The closeness of this election highlights the importance of every person’s vote.”
A complete listing for the November 2, 2010 election results for Governor/Lt. Governor and all other offices is available on the Secretary of the State’s website www.sots.ct.gov and are attached to this release. Earlier this afternoon, the City of Bridgeport submitted a Head Moderator’s return that showed Malloy receiving 17,973 votes on Election Day and Foley receiving 4,099. By law, the Secretary of the State must certify the election results by the end of the month in which votes were cast. That certification will take place by November 25th.
“… Given the plurality of 5,637 votes …”
Joel Gonzalez // Nov 5, 2010 at 2:31 am
Just got back from Count Central. My prediction is:
Malloy by 5,749. BTW, does anyone knows if the ballots were found in a brown bag?
Where could the other brown bag with 112 votes be?
Could they be in here?
www .youtube.com/results?search_query=bags+of+ballots&aq=f
SuBy should be looking into this:
www .youtube.com/watch?v=4I_DcAfUOs0
Joel
You belittle Susan Bysiewicz by calling her SuBy and constantly force your way into the conversation, frequently by asking questions.
Let me return the favor by offering you a t-shirt that uniquely captures your inner spirit:
rlv.zcache.com/i_am_a_jerk_tshirt-p235366476981179273qjds_210.jpg
Don’t believe me, trust the Associated Press (AP), who says Malloy won the Governorship:
www .bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-05/democrat-malloy-wins-connecticut-governor-s-race-against-foley-ap-reports.html <–
So Lennie,
Whenever Bridgeport stubs its toe with a situation like this voting mess, I ask myself one question to try to right the ship.
And that question is “What would P.T. do?”
The answer is simple, take a negative and turn it into a positive. Use this to promote the city and maybe make some money on the side.
So Lennie, I am proposing an OIB contest. I am sure you can come up with some passes to some event (maybe the next show at the Playhouse) to the most creative T-shirt design commemorating the 2010 election. So fellow bloggers, show some creativity. Multiple entries allowed as long as they are more creative than the last. Maybe even Tom Kelley can churn out some of his Tees in time for the holiday giving season.
Bob Walsh, You’re right.
What Bridgeporters should stress is that:
Bridgeporters wanted to be heard, and they ***were*** heard.
Bridgeporters wanted to speak, and they ROARED!
Bridgeporters replied to the Republicans’ offer of wrestling matches for votes with a resounding NO! and showed the world that Connecticut is still, not a plutocracy, but a DEMOCRACY.
Dan Malloy owes Bridgeport voters “a big one” as the saying goes. What should Bridgeporters ask for in return?
Hurrah for Bridgeport!
And here is the first entry:
In block letters on the front of the T is
THE NEW BRIDGEPORT DEMOCRATIC MACHINE
then the image of a copying machine then
ONLY IN BRIDGEPORT
11/2/2010
Isn’t this just great, a sitting councilmen promoting a contest that just rakes the city over the coals. Just what we need, something else to point a finger at the city. Sponsored or proposed by a city council person. It would be funny if it were not SO SAD!!!
ENTRY NUMBER 2:
What does Santa have for you in her bag this Christmas Season?
[picture of the blue ballot bag with Registrar of Voters printed on the side with paper popping out at the top]
500 MISSING PAPER BALLOTS!!!
ONLY IN BRIDGEPORT
11/2/2010
Okay Troll, done deal. Contest is on. Playhouse tix, zoo tix, updated edition of my book Only In Bridgeport for release soon. And I’ll throw in a bag of paper ballots.
Bring on the bag job contest. Santa’s Bag of Tricks. You Can Believe In Santa.
*** How about P.T. Barnum dressed as a circus ringmaster with OIB on his hat, playing 3-ballot monty or ballot shell game; “Find the ballot & you get a vote!” *** Colors; red, white & blue ***
You Can’t Believe In Santa!
Bridgeport! It’s In The Bag!! I’ve Got The Bridgeport Ballot Blues!!!
Turning a negative into a positive indeed!
Will Bridgeport’s latest, most stupendous, most astounding feat (in the election ring) make the 25th anniversary edition of “Only in Bridgeport?”
Santa
Claws
Ballots
Love it! Would that be eligible to go into court based under claws and effect?
Here was the brilliant statement by Santa yesterday on TV. I violated state statute. She invoked her Santa Clause.
I don’t believe in no Sanity Clause.
Who was the Chief Moderator in this debacle?
Election day “truth stranger than fiction” caused Charlie Walsh to explore the satirical potential of the chain of events in Bridgeport in the 2010 campaign right up to election day.
Uncle Charlie’s old man forgot to spell check with his eyes open so that activity at the “poles” was referenced twice this morning in the local rag.
With the full honor and respect due our hometown paper (from OIB readers, that is) for its current level of effective local investigative reporting, perhaps the T-Shirt ought to have the entire editorial staff of the CT Post doing a “pole” dance, 2010 style? (Forget the kielbasa, please.) Maybe featuring the “Bridgeport losers”–Linda serving up another high kick; Registrars’ office staff sleeping through the event; our Mayor preparing for dinner guests, tripping over another malapropism, perhaps; (Isn’t it interesting how fast the mayor can recruit, select and authorize a three-person panel for this “voter emergency,” yet after three years he still cannot produce anywhere hear full staffing with current terms on the 20 Boards and Commissions???) Will the three-member panel allow the Mayor to “poll”-vault this episode?
Perhaps Uncle Charlie can spin another “tail” or two for his readers?
I hear Chew-Chew-Charlie is going to be the feature at Ruby’s next week. They have an all-you-can-eat buffet. Warren might even be there. I’m going to have to load up on my singles.
Bob let me ask you and others a question. How funny will it be if a judge orders a new election in Bridgeport?
Will it be funny if after this new election Malloy, Himes and Musto lose because their margin of victory is reduced greatly by this new election and a smaller percentage of voters showing up?
Bob what funny quip do you have for that one???
How funny would it be if a judge ordered the elections be done over?
Lennie, plain and simple. The Connecticut election was a fraud. Surely, there is no way the new voting system can’t be bypassed. If you believe that, you also believe there is no way one can cheat at a Casino. The big question is how it was done. If the question can’t be answered, then one can rest assured it will continue to be done the same way time and time again. Has anyone come up with an explanation as to what happened in regard to the discrepancy in the Caruso vs. Finch primary when 100-plus people voted but weren’t crossed out on the checkers voters list? If no one can explain how it was done, then it is safe to do it again in a way which the fraud can be covered up and made undetectable. Going back the casino analogy, here are several example of the concept used to cheat with ballots, I’m assured you won’t get it–it’s out of your league:
www .youtube.com/results?search_query=card+tricks+revealed&aq=1
*** Court or no court odds are “NO” new election. Turning a negative into a positive is better than continued finger-pointing & complaining as usual. *** Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good! ***
Just get the feds in and find out who tried to rig the election and be done with them all. Tired of the black eyes in my city dag nab it. Maybe the same heartless fools who flushed me did the rigging and justice can be served!!!!!!!!!
How long is the shirt comp active? I think I can get some graphic-design students to enter.
It’s active until a new governor is sworn in.
If someone real quick gets the right quip about this circus on a T-shirt, they won’t have to worry about buying the kiddies a Flexible Flyer and other goodies for Xmas.
Now for all you perfect people out there, there is another person out there who is responsible for the ballot fiasco.
People make mistakes and this was a big mistake it’s wrong to ridicule them and wrong to be cruel. These sayings or slogans for tee-shirts started by Mr. Perfect Bob Walsh is cruel. Let’s remember these 2 people have kids and a family just like most on this blog do. They or their friends or their parents will be reading this BS and the rest of the family will suffer the same indignities you are heaping on Santa.
You want to do something, file a complaint with the secretary of state’s office. Vote these people out in the next election.
T.C. You are wrong, wrong, wrong.
This matter is a disgrace, we have two wars going on and we are teaching them “democracy” at a cost of millions of dollars and thousands dead.
Read the papers; the “elections” in Iraq were above the fold stories for a week and it was all about VOTING, something our wonderful SANTA took from us.
We have the right to vote, it’s American, Santa should resign immediately, a disgrace.
Does anyone wonder how the official vote totals of 22,072 or so is just 1,072 ballots in excess of the 21,000 printed ballots? 12 voting locations ran out of ballots. Were there 1072 auxiliary (photocopied ) ballots? It just doesn’t make sense to me. I thought there would be 28,000 to 30,000 actual votes because so many polling places ran out of ballots so early in the day and there were long lines in lots of places.
Any video of all these alleged “long lines?” I registered my e-mail address with Dan Malloy for Gov. At 9:04 p.m. on November 2, 2010, I received an e-mail/Urgent Update from them. Subject: Some Bridgeport Polls Open Until 10 pm
By noon, I had already voted at Bassick which was not one of the schools with a ballot shortage. Obviously it was a mass e-mail effort. Here is the main message:
Any registered voter who has not yet had a chance to vote today is urged to go to their polling station before 10p.m. and cast their ballots. (Notice that the word “ballots” is in plural form, while “voter” is singular)
From what I understand (I know, I know nothing), the instruction of the judge who ordered the schools open ’til 10pm had ordered that only those who had gone to the polls earlier and could not vote due to the ballot shortage must be allowed to cast their ballot ’til 10pm.
Lennie, do you have a link to the judge’s instructions or order? I’d like to read it and not go by what I’ve read in the paper or heard.
Knowing what I know I’d design a shirt that reads:
Thank you
Ayala/Borges
It would have been worse
One day, I’ll explain this.
TC I will be serious when I speak to the mayor’s committee that is charged with looking into the matter. I will share with them my own experiences at Central High that day. I will provide them with details that specifically will point out the problems and other issues that made the day worse.
I could not look into the eyes of my own constituents and tell them the ballots will be here soon because I didn’t believe it.
Believe me, I was embarrassed as an elected official for myself and the city of Bridgeport and I will share all of this with the commission AND I will make constructive suggestions as to improvements in the process.
And I will explain what was going on in that video also.
But TC, at some point you also need a little self-deprecating humor too.
And that is what the T-shirt is all about.
“Town Committee,” you said, “People make mistakes and this was a big mistake it’s wrong to ridicule them and wrong to be cruel. These sayings or slogans for tee-shirts started by Mr. Perfect Bob Walsh is cruel. Let’s remember these 2 people have kids and a family just like most on this blog do. They or their friends or their parents will be reading this BS and the rest of the family will suffer the same indignities you are heaping on Santa.”
Andy, are you kidding? I know you must joking. If not then you have no respect for those citizens of Bridgeport who had their right to vote and to their vote count taken away from them.
Ron, does ridiculing a person or making fun of the city make it better? No! Did I say they were right and should not be fired or asked to resign? No! I did not. Ron, do you think making up slogans and making fun of someone is actually going to make it better for the voters whose right to vote was damaged?
If the ridicule gets the incompetents to resign, yes it makes it better for the voters.
Sandi should have admitted she grossly misjudged the election turnout. Making excuses and blaming the sec of state just made her look worse than she already does. This is going to hurt Susan Bys’ future political career big time. Some of her on-camera quotes are embarrassing like when she was announcing the Malloy-Foley numbers and Mark Davis from WTNH had different numbers. This will haunt the Dems for years. Sometimes the Dems are their own worst enemies.
Mario Testa to the CT Post regarding Ayala/Borges:
“There is very easy mathematics to an election,” he said. “They didn’t do the mathematics.”
If you clicked and viewed my YouTube link to the card tricks, you’d know that some of the card tricks require some “mathematics” in order to work.
OK t-shirt idea:
The words “Eye Vote!”
with a picture of Local Eyes with Obama ears, holding a sign that reads “Democrat.”
I claim copyright protection of the above t-shirt design idea.
My eyes picked up a slight error. Correction: “Eye Voted!” and “Eye Voted Today!” copyright 2010.
Joel,
You cannot copyright what you cannot produce. You don’t have a copyright until you have a demo. Besides, your ideas are barely original and will come in direct contact with of tee shirts.
Go here to learn more: www .zazzle.com
Here’s the long and short of it. Get a registered trademark for your shirt at USPTO.gov.
Also, you can’t copyright a t-shirt.
Joel,
You are sadder than any country song!
*** Anyone who thinks this is solely the mistakes of just the 2 VR directors, Borges & Ayala is wearing blinders! Many a state & city worker, also poll workers played a part in this debacle along with the overall ROV’s budget. Besides we should not take Bpt politics so seriously, no one else does! *** SOS ***
*** Well Lennie, you advertised “The Accidental Mayor” a few days ago so what was your overall impression of the film & audience interest this past weekend? *** Inquiring minds would like to know. ***
Mojo, will post commentary on that for Monday. Thanks.
Bob Walsh // Nov 5, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Joel,
That’s interesting since no one asked me to do so. Are you sure you’ve got that right?
Joel Gonzalez // Nov 7, 2010 at 2:10 am
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.
Now let’s go to the video. I cannot see it on the computer I am on but since I was there I will explain to all what was so wrong about what was going on.
I was at Central High most of the day. When we finally got word that the polls would be staying open 2 hours longer, I took a break, I had received a phone call from a friend who had been dispatched by the Senate and House Dems to observe the city’s ballot counting.
As a result of meeting with him I got a refresher as to what should be done when the polls close.
I returned to Central before 10:00 and when into the school as they were preparing to end the voting. Two precincts vote at Central. One kept running out of ballots the other one still had plenty on hand.
I was going back and forth between the two machines when I suddenly asked where the paper ballots were. Someone pointed to two bags on the floor and said they were there. The basic control over the number of votes cast is at the end of the day you count the total names crossed off as having voted and compare that to the totals on the voting machine plus any paper ballots that were not read by the machine for any reason. You then account for any destroyed ballots so that you can account for the total number of ballots issued to the polling place.
The video picks up after I informed the moderator that she had to physically count the number of ballots that were not read by the machine and she informed me that it was a long day, that she was tired and that she was not spending any more time at the polling place. I asked her to contact Santa Ayala and she refused.
My goal at that time was to make sure all of the observers (many lawyers reading election law for the fist time) were aware of the egregious mistake that was about to be made. Once you lose control of the number of votes cast the election process loses all integrity.
Eventually someone was able to get to Santa who then called the moderator and instructed them to manually count the ballots.
So sit back and enjoy. If you’ve got popcorn, make sure it’s buttered. It take the bitter taste out of the experience.
Don’t forget the salt!
What if any penalty can be imposed on these poll workers who go rogue and refuse to do their jobs? I don’t care how late it is or how tired you are, this is a vital job and you should do it to the best of your ability. Can these poll workers be fined or at the very least never be hired to work the polls again? That was part of the problem, incompetent (or improperly instructed) poll workers.
Question: did the city disregard the ballots that came in after 8 p.m.? Am I reading that right?
Smoker, Finch said that the votes cast after 8 p.m. were insignificant as Malloy won easily without them. Total disregard and disrespect for the people who came out AGAIN to try and cast their vote. Many I presume were Black and Latino given the voting districts. Then he released tallies that were not certified by the registrars that he had no right to do as those “unofficial numbers” added to the confusion and made us look ridiculous to the nation. On election night he announced that the reverse 911 had been activated to notify voters of the extended hours. That was a false statement as the reverse 911 was not functional that night and could not be activated. This city is a mess and the mayor has no clue.
A Republican Bridgeport mayoral candidate steps up to the plate.
www .slater2011.com/index.php?option=com_ccnewsletter&view=ccnewsletter
Does he have an OIB link on his page?
President Obama on Saturday, 10/30/2010, Bridgeport Connecticut.
“We’ve lost almost 8 million jobs, before we even put our economic plan in place.”
DOL report one month before Obama’s Bridgeport visit:
www .bls.gov/opub/ted
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, abbreviated ARRA (Pub.L. 111-5) and commonly referred to as the Stimulus or The Recovery Act, is an economic stimulus package enacted by the 111th United States Congress in February 2009.
Obama lied to Bridgeport, Connecticut by almost 1 million jobs. Jim Himes said nothing about the lie.
www .bls.gov/opub/ted/2009/feb/wk2/art02.htm
The truth is:
www .youtube.com/watch?v=ejaBTvoeNq0