Martha Dean (CPBN Media Lab) |
Connecticut’s lame-duck attorney general and new senator-elect, Richard Blumenthal, is obligated to investigate credible accusations of voter fraud that linger in the state’s gubernatorial election – including possible illegal alien voting – despite Republican candidate Tom Foley’s concession yesterday to Democratic opponent Dannel Malloy, charges the GOP’s attorney general candidate in last Tuesday’s election, Martha Dean
Dean, who is considering further legal action challenging the eligibility of her victorious Democratic opponent, argued Blumenthal is sworn to uphold the federal and state constitutions, making it his obligation to investigate voter fraud “without regard to whether it has been requested or approved by the secretary of state.”
Foley supports continued investigation of the allegations but has concluded “there was no credible evidence of fraudulent voting” that would have altered the result.
Allegations include extended voting hours in Democratic-stronghold Bridgeport announced illegally through the reverse 911 system, unattended bags of ballots, ballots photocopied without supervision and union workers leaving replica ballots in polling booths with Democratic candidates checked off.
Republicans cried foul last week after the state’s top election official – Democratic Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz – declared the Democratic candidate the winner despite the absence of an official vote count and a post-deadline tally from Bridgeport that overcame the Republican candidate’s lead.
But amid the numerous reported allegations, little has been said about the possibility that illegal aliens decided a gubernatorial race in which the candidates officially were separated by just 5,810 votes out of more than 1 million cast, Dean told WND.
Dean noted that both the mayors of New Haven and Hartford have declared their cities “sanctuary cities” for illegal aliens. She pointed out that over the past three years, New Haven has issued ID cards to about 15,000 people, ostensibly to enable them to use public services such as the library.
New Haven, Dean argued, has allowed people registering to vote to use the ID cards as proof of identification.
“While we have no proof that the recipients of these ID cards are illegal aliens, it seems likely since the mayor’s argument for the cards focused on helping illegals set up bank accounts and use other city services,” she said.
Anyone of voting age who is in the U.S. legally does not need an ID card, she reasoned, since he or she already has one or more forms of photo ID.
Dean said many in Connecticut believe a random sampling of the voter list to check citizenship would reveal massive voting by illegal aliens.
“The right to vote is a fundamental constitutional right,” she told WND. “That right is abridged unlawfully when illegal aliens are allowed to cancel out the votes of American citizens and, in some cases, determine elections.”
Dean called Bysiewicz’s declaration of her fellow-Democrat Malloy as the winner last week, without announcing the vote count, a “brazen partisan act and improper use of her office.”
“Connecticut law does not permit the secretary of state to declare a winner prior to final vote tallies,” she said.
Bysiewicz had sought re-election but was eliminated from the attorney general race in May by a decision by the Connecticut Supreme Court, because she did not meet the eligibility criteria.
Dean contends that if the precedent in the state Supreme Court’s Bysiewicz case were applied to her Democratic opponent for attorney general, George Jepsen, he also would be rendered ineligible. Dean says Jepsen himself has admitted he lacks the 10 years of litigation experience required for the job.
Dean filed a lawsuit questioning Jepsen’s eligibility, but a Hartford Superior Court judge decided against her Nov. 3, ruling “there is no statutory authority that authorizes the plaintiff to bring her … action prior to the election.”
Jepsen called the lawsuit a “a publicity stunt,” insisting he is more than qualified for the job, the Connecticut Post reported.
Dean told WND she is evaluating options with her campaign team and lawyers.
‘Choosing sides’
The Republican Governors Association also expressed concern Thursday about the accuracy of the vote count in the gubernatorial election.
“Tom Foley led this race every step of the way until the Democratic secretary of state chose sides and apparently started counting photocopied ballots and ballots cast after the polls closed,” RGA Communications Director Mike Schrimpf said, according to the Washington Post. “There are serious discrepancies and concerns about the vote counting process in Connecticut. Republicans will make sure the votes are counted fairly and accurately.”
One day after the Nov. 2 vote, the Associated Press called the race in favor of Malloy after Byseiwicz issued preliminary results showing the Democrat ahead by more than 3,000 votes. But the AP was forced to retract its call late Wednesday night when the official count showed Foley leading by 8,500 votes with 98 percent of precincts reporting.
Bysiewicz declared Malloy the winner Wednesday night though she was unable to announce a final vote count.
Thursday morning – after the deadline to turn in vote counts – the Democratic stronghold of Bridgeport reported Malloy received 17,973 votes to Foley’s 4,099, putting, putting the Democrat ahead by well more than the 2,000-vote margin that would trigger an automatic recount.
Poll workers in Bridgeport reported they observed information being handed out to people walking to polling booths, including sample ballots with Democratic candidates checked off.
Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch also revealed that a bag of 336 unopened
ballots was belatedly found at a polling site, according to the New
York Times. The ballots were counted and included in the final tally.
At a news conference yesterday announcing his concession, Foley said “the spectacle in Bridgeport does call into question the integrity of our voting in Connecticut.”
“Had it been closer, it might have called in the result and that should not happen,” he said.
Dean told WND the reported incidents are hard to prove as fraud but are “so unusual, it’s hard to believe they’re accidental.”
“I do see a pattern in Connecticut that is very troubling,” she said.
Republican state Sen. Kevin Witkos, a police supervisor in Canton, Conn., called for an investigation into the use of the Reverse 911 system in Bridgeport, the Hartford Courant reported. Election officials used the system to call voters to inform them that voting hours had been extended by two hours to 10 p.m.
The extension was ordered by a Superior Court judge after some polling places ran out of ballots.
But Witkos said “the law very clearly states that the system is to be used ‘only in case of life-threatening emergencies.'”
Witkos added that when “someone gets a message from reverse 911, he or she should know that it is important to react immediately, and appropriately, to information and directions being given to them by emergency personnel.”
“It does not exist so that politicians can hijack it to get their message out, whatever that message may be,” he argued.
Finch contended that the judge who extended the hours had ordered the use of the reverse 911 system. But a copy of the judge’s two-page emergency order made no specific mention of a calling system.