Gov. M. Jodi Rell is considering creating a bipartisan commission to examine the chaotic gubernatorial election so that the mistakes never happen again, sources said Saturday night.
Rell has not yet made a final decision, which could come on Monday or Tuesday, according to a knowledgeable insider.
Both Republican and Democratic sources said that Rell has been thinking about appointing multiple members to the special commission.
The commission would not investigate the official results from the Secretary of the State's office that say that Democrat Dannel Malloy received 5,637 votes more than Republican Tom Foley - a tiny difference out of more than 1 million votes cast. Instead, the commission would be forward-looking and would look at "what went wrong'' in order to make recommendations to prevent similar blunders in the future, an insider said.
In Bridgeport, about 21,000 ballots were ordered for about 70,000 registered voters. After some polling places ran out of ballots, a state Superior Court judge ordered that 12 polling places would remain open for an additional two hours to 10 p.m. Malloy eventually won by a wide margin in Bridgeport, but only a small number of voters actually cast ballots after 8 p.m.
The 2010 outcome was the closest election for governor in Connecticut in more than 55 years - dating back to the 1954 election of Democrat Abe Ribicoff, who won by 3,115 votes over Republican John Lodge.