Print

Nov. 2 Election Results Go Into Record Book

Jon Lender

November 24, 2010

The state's closest gubernatorial election in 56 years entered the historical record Wednesday with the official certification of Democrat Dan Malloy's 6,404-vote victory over Republican Tom Foley out of more than 1.1 million votes cast on Nov. 2.

"By certifying these election results, we are officially putting into the record books the final word on one of the closest elections in the history of our state," said Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz. "This only serves to underscore the point that every vote truly does count."

State law requires the secretary of the state, along with the treasurer and comptroller, to "declare what persons are elected" on the last Wednesday of November.

Malloy and his lieutenant-governor running mate, Nancy Wyman, were certified as winners over the GOP ticket of Foley and Mark Boughton by 567,278 votes to 560,874 votes — the second-closest gubernatorial election since 1954, when Democrat Abe Ribicoff defeated Republican John Lodge by 3,115 out of 920,000 votes cast.

Bysiewicz also certified all the other Connecticut results from Nov. 2, including: Democratic state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal's victory over Republican Linda McMahon for the U.S. Senate; wins by all five Democratic incumbents in the U.S. House of Representatives; the Democratic sweep of the constitutional offices of attorney general, comptroller, secretary of the state and treasurer; and state legislative races, in which Democrats won 100 of the 151 seats in the state House of Representatives and 23 of the state Senate's 36 seats.

The gubernatorial result was delayed, and disputed, for nearly a week after a voting nightmare in Bridgeport, where polling places ran out of pre-printed paper ballots on Election Day and, in response, a judge ordered balloting extended by two hours until 10 p.m. Bysiewicz was criticized, but she blamed local voting officials for not buying enough ballots. Legislators now are talking of requiring all towns and cities to buy one ballot for each of their registered voters.

All told, 1,145,839 of Connecticut 2,022,081 registered voters cast ballots on Nov. 2, for a turnout of nearly 57 percent, up from the 2002 figure of 56.5 percent but lower than the nearly 60 percent turnout of 2006.