Tom Foley's running mate in the disputed election for governor, said the tally of Tuesday's vote is constantly shifting and counseled against a "rush to judgment" in declaring the winner.
""Let's take our time folks," Mark Boughton, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor and the mayor of Danbury, told reporters at a press conference in Hartford late this afternoon.
"Let's slow down a little, let's get it right. Let's show how Connecticut does democracy and at the end of the day, we'll certainly support whoever is victorious if it's not us," Boughton said.
No decisions have been made regarding a legal challenge to the contested election results between Foley and Democrat Dannel P. Malloy, Boughton said. Kevin O'Connor, an attorney working with the campaign, stood in the background as Boughton spoke, but O'Connor did not speak publicly.
The Foley campaign said it continues to find what it called discrepancies between the unofficial results posted on the secretary of the state's website and the campaign's own calculations.
"The data flow that were getting is not matching up with data that we have and when we go back and double check it...[we] find out we were correct and the Secretary of the State's office is not,'' Boughton said. "That's part of this process and usually its not a problem but it's a problem this year because of how close this election is.''
Boughton said he did not expect the winner to be determined for a few more days.
"At this time we're not asking for a recount,'' Boughton said. "The statute doesn't quite permit it, but it certainly would make sense for the Secretary of the State's office to triple check those numbers...because we're already seeing changes in numbers that were announced at 3 o'clock. Those numbers from the Secretary of the State's website have changed twice.''
Boughton cited Torrington as one such discrepancy, saying there was a 2,000-vote miscalculation that "under-reported our returns and over-reported Malloy's."
"We're in such a rush to judgment here," Boughton said. "Let's take our time and get it right."
Boughton criticized Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz for saying she believed Malloy was the winner on Wednesday, before all of the official results had been tabulated. "I don't think the secretary of the state has any business declaring a winner [based] on unofficial returns," he said. "I think it's absurd.''
Boughton was asked by Ted Mann of The Day of New London whether the Republicans' calculations put them ahead or favor Malloy. He said he did not know.
"There's a reason why our statutes say you don't certify an election until the end of the month, and that's because there are minor adjustments that are made statewide on those numbers,'' Boughton said. "The problem with that now is, we have a very, very close election.
So adjustments of four or five hundred votes either way could be significant and could influence the outcome of this election.
"So our message is slow down, take a deep breath, take a step back and let's get it right be the residents of the state deserve nothing less.''
Meanwhile, Foley issued a release that said in Bridgeport "a bag of photocopied ballots was apparently discovered that had not been included in any previous count."
Bridgeport's Democratic registrar, Sandy Ayala, said Foley was wrong. The registrars have been aware of those ballots, she said. She would not elaborate when asked if they had been counted. She said that will be explained when they count the precinct where the ballots originated.