Leftist partisans have spent the better part of the last three years shouting that there’s little evidence of fraud in U.S. elections.
But facts are stubborn things and recent events don’t mesh well with their favored narrative.
Now this Connecticut election was thrown out due to shocking evidence of ballot-box stuffing.
A Mayoral candidate who was defeated in the Democrat Primary in Bridgeport, Connecticut obtained video evidence that showed tampering with absentee ballots.
The videotape evidence is damning
In the video, a supporter of incumbent Mayor Joe Ganim allegedly stuffed stacks of papers into an absentee ballot drop box.
Challenger John Gomes posted in a message online that the video proves “that the Mayoral election was unequivocally stolen through corruption within City Hall by tampering with absentee ballots.”
The margin of victory in the Primary election was decidedly narrow.
Gomes received a greater share of votes from in-person voters on Primary day but lost the race after more than 2,300 absentee ballots were added to the vote tally by the end of the evening.
When all was said and done, only 250 votes separated the candidates.
It was later revealed that many of the absentee ballots should never have been counted because they were improperly stamped.
When the evidence was weighed by a judge, he came down on the side of the challenger.
Superior Court Judge William Clark overturned the results of the Mayoral Primary and ordered a new election.
The decision came just days before Bridgeport voters are scheduled to head to the polls on Nov. 7th.
Clark wrote in his ruling, “The volume of ballots so mishandled is such that it calls the result of the primary election into serious doubt and leaves the court unable to determine the legitimate result of the primary. The videos are shocking to the court and should be shocking to all the parties.”
Gomes heralded the ruling as “a victory for the people of Bridgeport” and added, “Our campaign always believed that the integrity of our democratic process must be upheld.”
Gomes’ lawyer, Bill Bloss, said after the ruling, “At the end of the day, the videos don’t lie. The videos showed substantial, massive absentee ballot misconduct. And that was certainly a substantial reason why the judge ruled the way he did, I think.”
Bloss called for major reforms to the city’s election procedures, saying, “I think there are some reforms that can be used in terms of the application process, in terms of preparing signatures, in terms of identifying people who return absentee ballots on behalf of voters if they use dropboxes or the U.S. mail.”
Instead of ordering a new primary on a specific date, Clark ordered city and state officials to work together to schedule the new election.
The Nov. 7th general election will list Ganim as the Democrat candidate and Gomes as the Independent candidate on the ballot.
If Ganim or one of the other Mayoral candidates win the general election, the new Primary would likely be held in December.
But if Gomes wins, it is expected that the court would simply cancel the new Primary.
Criminal charges coming for public officials?
Ganim was one of several city officials called to court for questioning, along with Wanda Geter-Pataky, vice chair of the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee and operations specialist for the city.
Eneida Martinez is the former City Council member accused by Gomes of stuffing ballot dropboxes.
Bloss told the Connecticut Examiner that the state may pursue criminal charges over the matter.
Stay tuned to Blue State Blues for any update to this ongoing story.
