A Connecticut mayoral race marred by allegations of fraud is once again under scrutiny after the secretary of state asked the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC) to look into “suspicious activity” and other “potential violations” in the town’s latest mayoral election.
Bridgeport Democrat Mayor Joe Ganim won a do-over primary in January and then the general election in February. A judge overturned the original primary results after evidence appeared to show Ganim’s affiliates “stuffing ballot boxes.”
During the September primary, Ganim was losing to John Gomes by hundreds of votes but ended up 251 votes ahead after absentee ballots came flooding in. Video footage later emerged that appeared to show two Democrats affiliated with Ganim shoving ballots into drop boxes, a violation of state law that stipulates a “voter must personally mail or personally return the ballot for it to be counted” with limited exceptions for household relatives.
Superior Court Judge William Clark ruled “the volume of ballots so mishandled is such that it calls the result of the primary election into serious doubt.”
The general election was still held on Nov. 7 because Clark said he lacked the authority to change it but a second primary was ordered to be held in January along with a new general election in February. Ganim won all three subsequent races.
But even the do-over appears to have possibly been compromised.
Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas wrote in a letter to the State Elections Enforcement Commission that election monitors who
