BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — In just one week voters in Bridgeport will head to the polls…again. They’ll be casting their ballots for mayor in an unprecedented do-over primary after a judge found evidence of absentee ballot fraud. The big question is whether voters will be motivated enough to vote after doing it twice already.
“I am planning on voting. There’s one candidate I prefer over the other one,” remarked one Bridgeport voter who declined to provide his name.
Round three of voting in Bridgeport is thanks to a video of city employee Wanda Geter allegedly filling ballot boxes with envelopes.
“It’s sad that nothing has been done. There really have been no criminal charges or arrests made,” said candidate for mayor, John Gomes.
Gomes delivered a message to Bridgeport’s electorate.
“The most important thing is I ask every voter out there to please come out and vote,” said Gomes.
Despite having two election monitors and new restrictions on absentee balloting in place, the office of the Secretary of the State is encouraging you to vote in person saying…”Our monitors cannot do it all.”
“We know that voting in person is very powerful here because we’ve had so many issues with absentee ballot abuse and fraud,” added Gemeem Davis of Bridgeport Generation Votes
Now. It’s a group committed to fighting voter apathy, disenfranchisement and fatigue.
Davis said that democracy is at stake.
“It is very shocking that no one has been arrested. There is clear evidence that fraud was happening here in the primary election and so we are waiting patiently. The people of Bridgeport are waiting to see if our democracy is going to be protected," said Davis.
FOX61 reached out to the campaign of Mayor Joe Ganim, who didn’t get back.
But he did write a recent newspaper editorial claiming Gomes, who used to work for the Ganim administration, was fired after getting arrested in 2009. He essentially called Gomes’ candidacy a fraud. Gomes fired back.
“These are the types of tactics he’s been playing. He’s been deviating from the true and necessary information we need to put out to the public and quite frankly the people of Bridgeport are tired of it, they see through it and it’s really a joke," said Gomes.
According to data from the state, more than 2,000 absentee ballots have been issued for this upcoming Mayoral do-over primary, but with just a week left so far only 400 of them have been returned.
The Gomes campaign backed away from a previous commitment to accept the results regardless of the outcome saying, “From our campaign, we need to make sure that everything is done fair and equal."
RELATED: Bridgeport mayor says supporters broke law by mishandling ballots but he had nothing to do with it
The Gomes campaign continues to claim the same bad actors are continuing to harvest absentee ballots despite new safeguards in place. Gomes said those safeguards are only a short-term fix but a step in the right direction.
Matt Caron is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at mcaron@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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