Allegations, investigations, continuations: Bridgeport's mayoral race heads back to the ballot box
From videos, court, to residents heading back to the polls for the third time: Here's a recap on the Bridgeport ballot battle for mayor.
Bridgeport residents are set to head to the ballot box Tuesday for yet another primary to determine who their mayor will be.
The special election comes after months of turbulent testimony in court after allegations of election fraud by the current mayor of the city, Joe Ganim.
Here's how the two candidates and Bridgeport residents got to this point:
Primary Election
It started on Sept. 12, 2023. Bridgeport held its primary, like other municipalities in the state, for its mayoral election. Ganim, a Democrat, was being challenged by another Democrat: John Gomes, a former political ally.
Gomes had supported Ganim in 2019 but said the city now needs to move in a different direction.
The primary election came and went, and despite Ganim having more votes than Gomes, the latter refused to concede the race. Earlier in the day, Gomes was in the lead. But by the night's end, when the absentee ballots were added, Ganim managed to pass Gomes' total.
By evening the next day, the website for the Secretary of the State showed Ganim with 4,260 votes (52.13%) and Gomes with 3,912 (47.87%), a difference of just over 340 votes.
Still, Gomes did not concede.
A few days later, a controversy over the results began to brew. While Ganim appeared to be the winner of the primary, Gomes claimed the election was, in fact, stolen. At the end of the election, the difference between Ganim and Gomes' total was only 250 votes.
“We’ve seen people taking absentee ballots, which we have evidence were actually being filled out for other people,” claimed Gomes at the time. “We have complaints that we will be mounting toward the state for them to look at.”
The Video and the Allegations
The ball started rapidly rolling down the hill once the allegations of election misconduct began in Bridgeport.
On Sept. 18, 2023, Gomes' campaign announced they had obtained surveillance video from a source that showed a city worker, later identified as Wanda Geter-Pataki, the vice-chair of the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee, appearing to stuff absentee ballots into a drop box outside of the Margaret Morton Government center.
The campaign declined to say how they got the video, and the Bridgeport Police Department began an investigation not only into the report of election misconduct but also into how the Gomes campaign got the video. The Gomes campaign said that voters should "have pause" about a fair investigation because Ganim "appointed the police chief."
That same day, the Secretary of the State's office said they planned to address "reports of alleged absentee ballot malfeasance" in the city.
Ganim, a week prior to the video's release, said to FOX61 about the allegations:
“Whether it’s Gomes or Trump, you hear that kind of stuff. I’m sure they certified the results today. If he has issues with [the results] I’m sure there’s a process he can take a look at, but it’s a little bit of sour grapes at this point. We’ve seen this movie before. Disgruntled loser, frankly."
But, once the video was out, and FOX61 went to Ganim's office to look for more information on Geter-Pataki, Bridgeport city officials called the police department. Officers arrived at the government center and referenced an unenforceable policy on signs that stated all visitors to the government center must show I.D., sign in and be authorized with an appointment before being escorted up to the mayor’s office.
FOX61 reminded the Bridgeport Police Departmet that the Margaret Morton Government Center is a public building funded with taxpayer dollars and that the First Amendment of the Constitution allows for freedom of the press, and the call was resolved.
The Gomes campaign, not deterred by a pushback by Ganim, said they would file a lawsuit to have the primary election results thrown out and a new vote held.
This wasn't the first time an election Ganim was a part of was called into question.
In 2019, there was another allegation of absentee voter fraud in Bridgeport related to the mayoral race. The State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC) said they completed that investigation in June 2023 and referred the case findings to the Office of the Chief State's Attorney for possible criminal charges.
The Gomes campaign said that they submitted 22 separate complaints to the Secretary of the State's office and the SEEC regarding voting misconduct for this race.
Later that same day, Sept. 18, Ganim released a statement regarding the video:
“I want to state unequivocally that I do not condone, in any way, actions taken by anyone, including any campaign, city, or elected official, which undermines the integrity of either the electoral process or city property. The Bridgeport Police Department is actively investigating all these matters, and my administration will continue to update the public as we are able to obtain more information.”
The allegations had people from Gov. Ned Lamont to Republican leaders at the State Capitol to call for an investigation.
“I want to go after this aggressively. I want to leave no stone unturned. I want to make sure investigators move and move quickly and if courts will be involved as early as tomorrow, I want them to make a quick decision,” said Lamont.
Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas said in cases like this, the most important thing is to be an educated voter.
“I cannot stress enough that the best anecdote for election impropriety and misinformation is an informed electorate,” said Thomas.
In October, the political blog Daily Ructions released a video showing two absentee ballot boxes outside of Bridgeport's firehouses and people dropping in the ballots. Ganim's campaign alleged it showed the hypocrisy of Gomes' campaign as it was stated those shown on the video were Gomes supporters.
But, Gomes' campaign pushed back, saying that the claims were smoke and mirrors to deflect attention away from "the real crimes" by the Ganim campaign.
In regards to the video, Gomes told FOX61 he identified and spoke with the supporters depicted. He claims the video shows nothing illegal.
“They not only voted for themselves. But they voted for family members, and that information can be supported with affidavits and documentation when requested,” said Gomes.
The allegations continued, with more complaints involving Ganim campaign canvasser and the accusation that the Ganim campaign told a man who wasn't a U.S. citizen that he could vote.
The additional allegations came after a hearing at the end of September, where a judge ruled that both parties involved in the lawsuit needed more time to produce and examine the evidence.
Everyone headed back to court in mid-October.
Court
The civil lawsuit was first heard at Bridgeport Superior Court on Sep. 25, 2023. After Judge William Clark ruled that both parties needed more time, the court reconvened on Oct. 12, 2023.
The wheels of justice were on the clock as the general election was Nov. 7. With less than a month to go, Attorney William Bloss, who represented Gomes, said the judge could still order a new primary to take place after a general election, which a second general election would then follow.
Bloss, while laying the groundwork for Gomes' argument, stated that the "numbers just don't add up."
“This is a problem nowhere in the state of Connecticut other than Bridgeport,” said Bloss.
Bridgeport city attorney John Kennelly fired back, saying, "It is an issue because, to some degree, people are hypersensitive."
Both attorneys then took their arguments before Judge Clark. One of the witnesses called to take the stand was Christina Resto, the Assistant Town Clerk for Bridgeport.
She was questioned about what the clerk's office does and doesn't do with absentee ballots. She said the clerk's office does not investigate the voter's signatures and that "if a signature is on [the application], we process it." She also said, "We don't sit there and go through 5,000 applications. We are not detectives."
According to testimony that day, not only is there no signature verification, but the city also doesn’t check if people are U.S. citizens or have a way of differentiating between the number of absentee ballots sent back to them through the mail versus those put into one of the city's four drop boxes.
No video evidence was presented on that first day in court. Gomes' campaign planned to call Ganim to the stand to testify as well, but Kennelly called it "courtroom theatrics" meant to do "nothing more than grab headlines."
The next day in court, Oct. 13, Geter-Pataky was called up to the stand, where she ultimately invoked her right to remain silent as new evidence was also shown.
A new video, around 20 minutes long, showed nine people making 24 drops into absentee ballot boxes across the city.
That day, Kennelly said that while it may not have been a clean election, the evidence isn't strong enough to throw the results out.
“This election may have had bad actors involved. I’m not saying that didn’t occur. But it’s not to a level that would disenfranchise all the thousands of voters who did it right,” said Kennelly that day.
Many of the new clips showed Geter-Pataky appearing to supervise and escort others making ballot box deposits. One of the clips even showed her with a bag, high-fiving someone after they made a drop. Some deposits were made in broad daylight, while others were made in the dark.
Geter-Pataky answered only a few questions before invoking her 5th Amendment right.
That following Monday, Oct. 17, Ganim was called to the stand to testify.
Unlike Geter-Pataky, Ganim didn’t take the 5th, but he also didn’t directly answer all the questions and needed several redirects from the judge.
As testimony kicked off, Bloss claimed the city’s rental rebate program was used as a political tool to target absentee ballot voters and that Geter-Pataky was improperly given a list of people who were absentee voters.
As Gomes' attorneys continued their questioning, they asked Ganim why he seemed more concerned about how the now-viral video was leaked rather than investigating if there was additional evidence of ballot mishandling.
Ganim danced around the question in court, so outside, FOX61 followed up and asked Ganim, “Are you more concerned about the leak, or are you more concerned about other absentee ballot box improprieties?”
Ganim responded, “Any allegations or claims are of major concern certainly.”
After all, Ganim said he was the one who ordered the ballot drop boxes be placed where cameras could see them.
Ganim also tried to distance himself from Geter, claiming she was just a campaign volunteer.
Following Ganim's overall testimony, it was still unclear whether he was directly involved in ballot fraud or mishandling, but this is also not a criminal case.
After three days of evidence in court, the trial ended abruptly on Oct. 19, and the Bridgeport ballot battle was in the hands of Judge Clark.
Weeks later, just one week before Election Day, a decision was made.
RELATED: Bridgeport mayor says supporters broke law by mishandling ballots but he had nothing to do with it
It's Election Day... again
On Nov. 1, Judge Clark announced the decision that the allegations of possible ballot misconduct warranted throwing out the Primary Day results and doing it again.
Gomes said of the decision that it was a "victory for the people for Bridgeport" and that their campaign "always believed that the integrity of our Democratic process must be upheld" and that Judge Clark agreed.
Ganim also released a statement regarding the decision at the time:
Certainly, today's decision by the court is a substantial one in the court case, and I'll wait to be apprised by the lawyers as to whether or not they want to take an appeal. But what hasn't changed, and what's really important, is this November 7th, Tuesday, in the city of Bridgeport is Election Day. It's a general election for mayor and all the municipal offices. I'm the endorsed Democratic candidate on the top line, and I'm asking everyone to come out and vote in this election. Let's send a powerful message that we want to keep the progress going in Bridgeport.
But, despite the ruling of holding another primary, Election Day had to go on.
This is how the way forward looked for the campaigns: If Gomes, on the ballot as an Independent at this point, won the general election, then the case was over. There wouldn't have been a need for a new primary. If Ganim won, there would be a new primary. If Ganim wins the new primary, he will continue being mayor. If Gomes wins the new primary, there will be a second general election.
During remarks following the announcement, Ganim called on Gomes to suspend fraud claims.
"You’ve been rejected twice by the voters. Respect the voters of the City of Bridgeport! Withdraw these claims. They have now lost their legitimacy.”
FOX61 nor the Associated Press would declare a winner in the general election until all legal issues and challenges related to the primary were fully resolved.
The judge's ruling that required the new primary also requires a new general election unless every candidate but one drops out of the race.
The judge could intervene and change that based on the results. Otherwise, the Secretary of the State's office and city officials plan for the Feb. 27 primary. The deadline for candidates to withdraw is Feb. 1.
RELATED: One week away: Will Bridgeport voters show up a third time for unprecedented do-over primary?
Jennifer Glatz is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jglatz@fox61.com.
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