Two Democratic city officials and two Democratic campaign workers from Bridgeport, Connecticut, have been arrested and charged with election fraud.
Wanda Geter-Pataky, deputy head of the city’s Democratic Town Committee, city Councilman Alfredo Castillo, Nilsa Heredia, a campaigner for Mayer Joe Ganim, and Josephine Edmonds, a supporter for state Sen. Marilyn Moore, have been charged due to their misuse of absentee ballots during the 2019 mayoral primary race.
In 2019, Ganim won his primary bid against Moore by 270 absentee votes. Moore prompted a trial challenging the election results. The five-week trial included testimony from voters who said Ganim campaign workers picked up their completed absentee ballots, which is a violation of state law. Through their testimonies, it was revealed that ballot applications were improperly distributed and mailed out with address corrections.
Superior Court Judge Barry Stevens ruled there was not enough evidence to overturn the election results despite clear evidence that some level of fraud had occurred with the handling of absentee ballots. Five days after the trial, Ganim won his reelection bid for mayor in the general election.
Following these allegations, the office of the secretary of state sent a letter of referral to the State Elections Enforcement Commission, which then opened up a civil investigation. The SEEC voted that there was evidence of criminal conduct and referred the case to the Division of Criminal Justice on June 7, 2023. The Statewide Prosecution Bureau within the office of the chief state’s attorney moved forward with the referral.
