A short live-stream interview with communications expert TJ Walker about reported voting problems in Bridgeport, Connecticut during the 2010 governor race (Foley v. Malloy). Walker downplays claims of deliberate fraud, calls the situation a chaotic administrative mess, discusses legal/political options for the Republican candidate Tom Foley, and recommends voters use absentee ballots or arrive early to avoid errors. The exchange emphasizes that human-managed systems always carry error risk and that election officials should organize processes to ensure every vote counts.
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Happening in Connecticut is political consultant and communications expert TJ Walker. TJ when you hear a bite like that, basically, if I can repeat that, if you didn't hear it, chaos created for purpose of fraud. Do you think that's exactly what went down in Connecticut?
Well, the problem is anytime there is chaos, if your side lost, you're going to say, hey, fraud. Okay? No one ever wants to admit that their candidate could actually lose because it didn't have as much support. So that's why it is so important for elections officials to try to keep these things well organized and having every vote count.
Right. Let's talk about Republican candidate, governor for governor, Tom Foley, scheduled to speak later today. Does he have any options?
Well, anybody can sue you. I mean, you can sue me because you don't like my face doesn't mean you'll win. The problem for him politically is it's going to look like a real cheap shot for him to say, I want these votes invalidated just because they were copied on a copy machine. He may have technical grounds for that, but it would really soil anyone's reputation to say, I specifically want votes that were supposed to count, not to count.
Let's talk about what went down in Bridgeport. Was it fair, the votes, the way they were copied on a copy machine? Was it all according to election law, legal?
It was a total mess, Yes. I mean, the number one intent of the law is to have people's votes count. That's the number one intent. The problem is. But the fact that they didn't have.
Yeah, they didn't have enough votes. They didn't have enough paper ballots. You know, this was supposed to be a system that was supposed to help make sure or ensure that something like this wouldn't happen. And look, we had it happen again.
Well, the reality is if election officials really wanted these to count, they'd probably farm out the whole thing to Google. I mean, this is about collecting data and making it measurable. But that, but that's why it doesn't seem like fraud. This was a heavily Democratic city, so the idea that, hey, let's defraud the Republicans by taking away Democratic votes, that doesn't add up. So that's why the charge of it being fraud I don't think is going to resonate with most voters.
Let's look at elections in general. What went down in Bridgeport, I mean, we have elections coming up every year. The system is going to be rolled out again. How do we ensure that something like this doesn't happen? And like you said, leave a bad taste in a lot of voters mouths as well as the candidate.
There are flaws with every single system. If you want to do like your bank machine, a lot of people think that would be great. But then there's no paper trail. Once you have paper, then there's a chance someone doesn't make enough copies. So there anytime you have humans involved, there is going to be options for air.
So you're saying you can't ensure something like this from happening.
There's always going to be some error. The big tip for voters. Yeah, vote absentee ballot or if you're going election day, show up the first one, show up as soon as the polls open so you feel like your vote counts. You're much less likely to encounter these problems.
All right, so the whole thing, what's going on with Foley and Malloy? The saga continues. We're going to have to wait until the secretary of state actually also certifies the count as well. Thank you very much, TJ for coming in. Always interesting perspective. And stay with WPIX.com for full.
