Bridgeport Democrat Party Vice Chair Wanda Geter-Pataky turned herself in to Connecticut State Police on Friday over election-tampering charges stemming from the 2023 Democrat primary for mayor.
During the September 2023 Democratic mayoral primary race, Mayor Joe Ganim was losing to John Gomes by hundreds of votes but later won the race by 251 votes after absentee ballots came flooding in. Video footage later appeared to show two Ganim-affiliated operatives stuffing the ballot drop boxes in violation of state law. Geter-Pataky — who was affiliated with Ganim’s campaign — was allegedly one of the ballot-box-stuffing individuals. Connecticut law stipulates that a “voter must personally mail or personally return the ballot for it to be counted,” with limited exceptions.
Superior Court Judge William Clark ruled that “the volume of ballots so mishandled is such that it calls the result of the primary election in[to] serious doubt.” Clark said he lacked the authority to change the date of the general election — which Ganim went on to win — but ordered a do-over.
Ganim won the do-over primary last January and then the general election in February of 2024. But that race was later called into question by Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas who, as I previously reported, “wrote in a letter to the State Elections Enforcement Commission that election monitors who were overseeing the general election found multiple instances of potential election violations.”
At least eight voters “indicated during spot check calls that they received absentee ballots despite not requesting them,” Thomas’ letter stated. […]
— Read More: thefederalist.com
