Danbury Mayor on Mail-In Ballots: ‘I Have Full Faith, Trust and Confidence in What We Do’
"I have full faith, trust and confidence in what we do here." That's what Danbury Mayor, Mark Boughton, told Ethan and Lou about the mail-in ballot procedures in Western, CT. The Mayor joined Ethan and Lou in his regularly, weekly radio spot on Thursday (10/1/20).
Ethan and I asked the Mayor about whether he is confident in mail in voting and what he thought of the President's claims of voter fraud already. Boughton had this to say:
You only have to go back to 2000 and know that we've been in court before, right up through Thanksgiving. But, I also think you had two gentleman there, whoever you voted for and whoever you supported, backed by teams of gentle ladies and gentleman that were going to fight as hard as they could, but they were going to fight in the courts, you know, in a legal manner and both would accept the ultimate outcome.
Now, remember Al Gore took back his concession, that had never been done before at three o'clock in the morning. But, I think he probably had the, you know, a rational reason to do that, he thought it was a lot closer than people realize.
So, I think that just saying, before you even cast a ballot, listen, we're going to court, that I think, is over the top. But, it does, I was thinking about it this morning, I did not know we were going to talk about this. I had no idea, but I was thinking about it this morning, I was thinking the Presidency is such a powerful seat, that when you say something there is a large percentage of people, no matter what you say, they believe you 100 percent, without any verification.
So, that gives the President a special duty to be truthful, to be transparent and to go out there and say I trust and believe in the system, i.e., I will accept the results of the election, no matter what happens, win, lose or draw.
It's at this point I interrupted and said, "That's what I mean, we are already in the Election process, it's begun. The Mayor responed:
He's undermining the process, right and that's different than 2000.
Boughton continued by talking about the security, validity and procedure of in person voting and mail-in ballots in Western, CT.
I just want to say this to your listeners, in terms of Connecticut and these mail-in applications that we, they've received in the mail. Understand that we have a number of checkpoints at the registrars office and the Town Clerk's office to make sure that if you are asking for a ballot, you are a registered voter in the City of Danbury and that if you mail your ballot in, we know that you already did that and if you try and show up at your local polling place on Election Day and vote again, we are going to catch you.
And, if we feel that this is a pattern of conduct by a person or groups of people, we will forward you to the State's Attorney's office for prosecution. It's a felony and five years in prison and a Federal crime as well. So, you can feel very confident that here in Danbury, our system is designed to dispel that kind of cheating or manipulation of ballots, it doesn't happen.
I'm not saying it doesn't happen in other cities in Connecticut, I know of one city in particular where it's just outrageous what goes on with absentee ballots and applications, but here in Danbury, we've got it down and that's true for the entire Greater Danbury area, all of our Town Clerk's and registrars do a great job. And, you can feel confident that people aren't voting twice and they are not cheating and all this other stuff.
The Mayor finished up our segment by saying:
I have full faith, trust and confidence in what we do here.
Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton reacts to remarks made about voter fraud in the first Presidential Debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden (AUDIO):
Danbury Mayor, Mark Boughton, reacts to first Presidential Debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden (DIRECTORS CUT AUDIO). Topics include: voter fraud, Joe Biden's stutter, the shut up moment and the President's KKK answer.