Bridgeport voters try again to pick mayor after 1st election tossed due to absentee ballot scandal
The voters of Bridgeport, Connecticut, are heading to the polls to elect their mayor — some for the fourth time — after the results of the last election were thrown out amid allegations of absentee ballot stuffing during a Democratic primary.
Tuesday’s elections could finally decide whether incumbent Mayor Joe Ganim wins another term or whether his former assistant, John Gomes, takes charge of Connecticut’s largest city.
Both Democrats have been trying to rally voters, many of them tired and frustrated, to cast ballots again in a drawn-out race overshadowed by allegations of voting irregularities.
They also sniffed each other. Ganim accused Gomes of running for mayor in revenge for being fired as the city’s acting chief administrator. He said it would be a “mistake” to put him in charge.
Gomes, in turn, brought up Ganim’s criminal record. After an initial period of twelve years as mayor, Ganim was convicted of corruption. He spent seven years in prison and then convinced voters in 2015 to bring him back as mayor.
“I can no longer tolerate the insults and ad hominem attacks directed at me by a lawless, immoral and unconscionable disbarred attorney bent on perpetuating a corrupt enterprise in the city of Bridgeport,” Gomes wrote in a recent op-ed .
Bridgeport’s road to Election Day has been complicated, and for some in the city of 148,000, even embarrassing.
There have now been two primaries. Ganim appeared to win the first election, held in September, but the results were annulled by Supreme Court Justice William Clark after security camera footage emerged showing at least two of the mayor’s supporters repeatedly going to the polls and turning them stuffed up. with papers that looked like absentee ballots.
Longtime political observers in Bridgeport said it appeared — at best — to be evidence of ballot harvesting, an illegal practice in which campaigners and volunteers persuade people to fill out absentee ballots for their candidate, then collect and mail them serve. Connecticut law requires most people to self-deliver their ballot. Ganim, who has accused the Gomes campaign of voting irregularities, said he was not aware of any wrongdoing by his supporters.
Because the court ruling came less than a week before the scheduled general election, the November vote went ahead as planned. Ganim received more votes, but that result also did not count due to the judge’s ruling.
A new Democratic primary took place on January 23. Ganim won again, this time more comfortably, but the two Democrats will face off again on Tuesday because Gomes had also qualified for the ballot as an independent candidate.
Some potential voters are exhausted.
“I hear customers talking about it,” said Nick Roussas, owner of Frankie’s Diner in Bridgeport. “A lot of people are tired of a fourth election coming.”
Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas said that despite the fatigue, turnout in this ongoing election was modest but steady. She also said election observers have been in the city clerk’s office daily, conducting spot checks for absentee ballots and reviewing video footage of open-air mailboxes. Since Feb. 1, her office has filed three referrals to the State Elections Enforcement Commission regarding possible election violations.
Ganim received support from top Democrats in the final days of his campaign, including endorsements from Gov. Ned Lamont, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, and U.S. Rep. Jim Himes and an appearance by Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz at a rally. get-out-the-vote meeting Saturday.
“Now more than ever, your support is crucial,” he urged supporters in a Facebook post.
Alongside Ganim and Gomes, Republican David Herz is running in the general election. Herz did not receive much support in the first elections in the strongly democratic city.