Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley was not impressed with the release of the official vote totals in the governor's race Friday night - saying he was not conceding and does not trust the numbers of Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz.
"Nothing's changed by her publication of these numbers,'' Foley told Capitol Watch in an exclusive interview. "We're not going to take her word for it. Let me put it that way.''
He added, "We're not conceding on the basis of her numbers. We don't have confidence in her numbers, based on what's happened. ... I don't want to agree with her numbers and take her word for it.''
Foley has a team of people working on the numbers over the weekend. He has not made any decisions about taking any legal action, knowing that no court action could be filed until Monday.
Without being satisfied in his own mind about the final numbers, Foley said he has not made any decisions about his next step.
"We actually don't know, but we are not accepting the Secretary of the State's numbers at face value,'' Foley said. "She's damaged her own personal credibility. Her own personal credibility is completely shot. ... It's not surprising to me that the voters of Connecticut are confused.''
Foley kept open the possibility that, in the end, the numbers cited by Bysiewicz could be correct. He said he is just not satisfied at the moment.
"They may be correct, but we're not taking them as certain,'' he said, adding that it will take "several extra days'' to make that determination.
Overall, more than 1 million citizens voted on Tuesday, and the official margin in the race is only 5,637 votes for Malloy in the closest governor's race in Connecticut in more than 50 years.