{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murphy-we-dont-live-in-a-democracy-if-we-dont-have-a-commitment-to-count-all-the-votes", "Murphy: We Don't Live In A Democracy If We Don't Have A Commitment To Count All The VotesRead More", "2020-11-04", "2020", "2020-11", "Democrat", "House", "CT", "Christopher Murphy", "M001169", "www.murphy.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "HARTFORDU.S. Senator Chris Murphy\r\n(D-Conn.) and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on Wednesday\r\nheld a media availability to discuss the 2020 election. In his remarks, Murphy\r\nthanked the poll workers across Connecticut who showed up to ensure Election\r\nDay went safely and smoothly, and reiterated the importance of counting every\r\nsingle vote before determining the next President of the United States. Thanking the poll workers\r\nacross Connecticut, Murphy said: We had an event-free Election Day\r\nyesterday in Connecticut. That's unfortunately rare in this state[A] real\r\ncredit to Denise Merrill and her team and clerks and registrars all across the\r\nstate who had to conduct an election with record turnout amidst very difficult\r\ncircumstances and seem to have pulled it off incredibly well. Murphy then went on to discuss the\r\nimportance of counting every single vote: [W]e\r\ndon't live in a democracy if we don't have a commitment to count all the\r\nvotesWhat separates a democracy from an autocracy is that we count all the\r\nvotes, we let the people decide who's going to lead this country. Murphy continued: Republicans\r\nand Democrats should both be objecting to anything the president tries to do to\r\nstop the counting of votes. And let's be clear: it was Republicans who made the\r\ndecision in most of these states to wait until today to count the votes. It was\r\nRepublican state legislatures in the Midwest that pushed off the counting of\r\nmail-in votes until today. It was Republican county officials in Pennsylvania\r\nthat decided to not start counting mail-in votes yesterday and only start that\r\ncount today. So many Republicans in these states are responsible for the count\r\nbeing delayed a day or two. Last\r\nmonth, Murphy along with\r\nU.S. Senators Amy\r\nKlobuchar (D-Minn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), and\r\nTammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) joined Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer\r\n(D-N.Y.)released a\r\nreport summarizing for the American people what to expect on Election Day\r\nand reinforcing the Democrats' call to encourage everyone to vote. The report\r\nfollows the months-long effort by President Trump to undermine the election and\r\nhis repeated refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. A full transcript of Murphy's remarks\r\ncan be found below: Thanks, everyone for\r\nbeing here today. Let me add by just expressing my gratitude to all the poll\r\nworkers here in Connecticut. We had an event-free Election Day yesterday in\r\nConnecticut. That's unfortunately rare in this state. It seems that every two\r\nyears we normally have one meltdown that's happening somewhere around the\r\nstate. That didn't happen yesterdaya real credit to Denise Merrill and her\r\nteam and clerks and registrars all across the state who had to conduct an\r\nelection with record turnout amidst very difficult circumstances and seem to\r\nhave pulled it off incredibly well. I voted just up the\r\nstreet here, at my polling place in Hartford. You know, these poll workers,\r\nthey were putting their safety in jeopardy by being out there all day\r\nyesterday. Polling places were safe, the lines were long, but a lot of\r\ngratitude goes to the people who made a safe and efficient Election Day happen\r\nhere in Connecticut. My congratulations to the\r\nwinners here in Connecticut. You know, pretty impressive to have Democrats now\r\nlooking at a supermajority in the State Senate, and expanding their majority in\r\nthe State House by at least seven seats. You know, when your majorities get\r\nbig, it's hard to make them even bigger. And we had a lot of fantastic\r\ncandidates, many of them ran for the first time in 2018, come back and run\r\nagain in 2020, and prove victorious. And I think that speaks to the\r\nsustainability of the movement in Connecticut. There is a lot of new people who\r\nhave gotten involved in politics since 2016 in Connecticut. Many of them won\r\nlast night and are going to be forces for good and forces for change in the\r\nstate for a long time. Turning to the federal\r\nseat: we don't live in a democracy if we don't have a commitment to count all\r\nthe votes. What separates a democracy from an autocracy is that we count all\r\nthe votes, we let the people decide who's going to lead this country. When all\r\nthe votes are counted, it looks as if Joe Biden is going to be the winner.\r\nDick, I think, did a good summary of where things stand today. But once the\r\nvotes are counted, I don't think there's any way that Vice President Biden\r\nwon't have a majority of both the popular vote and the Electoral College vote.\r\nAnd he may, by the end of the day tomorrow, have won in some surprising places\r\nlike Georgia, where the count is still open. But our commitment today\r\nhas to be to counting all of these votes. And Republicans and Democrats need to\r\ncome down hard on the president if he tries to cut off this count. Dick's\r\nright; the courtroom doors are open to anybody, but that doesn't mean we need\r\nto endorse the president trying to bring specious legal claims that seek to do\r\nonly one thing and one thing only, which is to stop the counting of\r\nvotes. And Republicans and\r\nDemocrats should both be objecting to anything the president tries to do to\r\nstop the counting of votes. And let's be clear: it was Republicans who made the\r\ndecision in most of these states to wait until today to count the votes. It was\r\nRepublican state legislatures in the Midwest that pushed off the counting of\r\nmail-in votes until today. It was Republican county officials in Pennsylvania\r\nthat decided to not start counting mail-in votes yesterday and only start that\r\ncount today. So many Republicans in these states are responsible for the count\r\nbeing delayed a day or two. And so it's interesting\r\nthat Republicans have undergone this campaign to push the count off for 24 or 48\r\nhours and then have a Republican president trying to shut that count down. I\r\ndon't think that's going to happen. I think these votes are all going to be\r\ncounted, and I believe that at the end of the day, Joe Biden is going to be\r\nelected president. And that's good news for Connecticut. We're not here to declare\r\na winner, but we know if Joe Biden's president, that's good news for our state.\r\nJoe Biden knows Connecticut, he cares about our state, he's going to work with\r\nour governor to finally turn the corner on COVID. He's going to push for\r\ninfrastructure investments that will help us rebuild our transportation and\r\nenergy grid here in the state. He's going to lead on issues like gun\r\nviolence. Obviously, we don't have\r\nall of the results in the United States Senate. It may come down to a couple of\r\nspecial elections in Georgia in January. But no matter what happens in the\r\nSenate, the election of Joe Biden, as it looks like will happen, is great news\r\nfor Connecticut. He's going to invest in Connecticut, he's going to help us\r\nconfront the pandemic in Connecticut, and he's going work closely with the\r\ndelegation on our priorities as well. So we'll be monitoring\r\nthe count throughout the day and throughout tomorrow. We'll be talking to our\r\ncolleagues on both sides of the aisle to make sure that we build bipartisan\r\nsupport for counting every vote. And I think when all is said and done, perhaps\r\nlater today, perhaps tomorrow, we will be able to declare definitively who's\r\nwon this election, and it looks as if that will be the Vice President Joe\r\nBiden. I'm happy to take questions. ###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murphy-we-dont-live-in-a-democracy-if-we-dont-have-a-commitment-to-count-all-the-votes"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7962328381836414, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}