She was supposed to announce the vote totals for Governor before the press on live television but instead Secretary of the State, Susan Bysiewicz was a no show at her Friday evening scheduled briefing.
Instead the results were distributed by press release. Bysiewicz said Democrat Malloy had 566,498 votes and Republican Tom Foley had 560,861 votes, a margin of 5,637 votes.
In an election that’s been no stranger to confusion over numbers, it was discovered that the results in the original release didn't add up, so a second release was sent out.
“There was one release that was seven votes off and it was a mistake of my press secretary corrected,” said Bysiewicz, who sat down for an interview with NBC Connecticut Friday night. “Yes, that was a mistake on his part.”
This is just the latest chapter in this ongoing saga. On Wednesday, the Secretary had announced that Malloy had won before Bridgeport's returns were turned in.
Asked if she thought her announcement on Wednesday was premature, Bysiewicz said, “No, I thought I thought it was very important because in a close election people want to know where are we?”
Once the results from Bridgeport were finally delivered to the Capitol, the Secretary said Malloy won the plurality of the vote, which was outside the margin allowed for a recount. She says the mess in Bridgeport will lead to changes, specifically in making sure that there is one ballot per voter.
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Asked if there should have been more oversight from her office Bysiewicz said, “Yes, absolutely it should have been.”
Before the results came in, Foley expressed frustration over the ever-changing vote totals. After the Bysiewicz announced the results, his campaign released a statement.
“I understand the city of Bridgeport has submitted its most recent numbers and the Secretary of State has announced they are official,” said Foley Campaign spokesperson Liz Osborn “Those numbers do not however mitigate the issues Tom spoke about today at his press conference, which includes ever-changing vote totals. Once the campaign has been able to gain additional information requested of a number of municipalities and the Secretary of State we will comment further.”
