BRIDGEPORT – Superior Court Judge William Clark ordered a new Democratic mayoral primary for Tuesday, January 23, 2024.

In his order Judge Clark noted that the court was unable to determine the results of the September 12 primary due to mishandled absentee ballots. The decision to order a new primary is a major win for candidate John Gomes and the people of Bridgeport who have known for years that Mayor Joe Ganim and his political allies have been suppressing Bridgeporter’s votes via absentee ballot abuse, fraud and manipulation.

The only names that will appear on the January 23rd ballot are John Gomes and Joe Ganim. This new election comes on the heels of the November 7th general election where John Gomes bested Ganim by 564 in-person votes. Ganim later “won” with a slim 175 absentee vote margin. But as we noted in our Now, What? post 3 weeks ago, the results of the mayoral race in that election did not count. The judge ordered the new primary after Bill Bloss, John Gomes’ lawyer, presented explosive video surveillance footage in court capturing multiple Ganim supporters including vice-chair of Bridgeport’s Democratic Town Committee, Wanda Geter-Pataky and former city council member Eneida Martinez allegedly stuffing absentee ballots into Drop Boxes located around the city. Both Geter-Pataky and Martinez refused to answer questions on the stand related to the surveillance footage and instead invoked their fifth amendment right against self-incrimination.

To thwart the efforts of political operatives harvesting and mishandling absentee ballots the Judge made the following absentee voting stipulations for the January 23 primary:

  • Absentee ballot applications will not be available until December 29
  • No absentee ballot applications can be processed prior to December 29 including ones that have already been taken out by political operatives
  • City elections officials must put serial numbers specific to the January 23 election on all absentee ballot applications if they are being provided to an individual requesting 5 or more applications
  • Absentee Ballots will be available on January 3
  • The Town Clerk must stamp each absentee ballot received through drop boxes with a stamp that says “Drop Box,” the date, time and the Town Clerk’s name

These new stipulations around absentee voting for the special January election are important. They give individual voters who legitimately need an absentee ballot enough time to do so. Individuals have approximately 3 weeks to request and return their ballots. This shortened timeline concurrently limits the amount of time political operatives have to target and track voters. With the addition of adding unique serial numbers to applications that are being provided to people requesting 5 or more applications, political operatives activity with absentee ballot applications and ballots can be more efficiently tracked. As it is currently, political operatives are able to walk into the Town Clerk’s office, request absentee ballot applications months in advance and distribute them anytime without much accountability.

Although these guardrails are being put in place by the court, we shouldn’t underestimate Ganim and his team’s commitment to cheating via absentee voting. The city’s lawyers, according to John Gomes, already tried to submit a last minute motion to extend absentee voting for the January primary by 4 weeks. Judge Clark rejected their request.

Read Judge Clark’s court order here.