A Superior Court judge has ordered a new Democratic Party primary for the nomination of mayor of Bridgeport, citing problems with the absentee ballots that propelled incumbent Joe Ganim to a come-from-behind victory after his challenger John Gomes was leading with the in-person vote count.
Judge William Clark ruled in favor of Gomes “with respect to violations of CT General Statutes 9-140b in the mishandling of absentee ballots” and called for a new primary.
“The number of ballots at issue when considering the corroborating evidence of the videos, documentary evidence, and calculation which show a large number of votes in drop boxes and a large percentage of absentee votes in districts connected to Ms. Geter-Pataky and Ms. Martinez, along with the negative inference to be drawn against their preferred candidate, Mr. Ganim, brings reliability of the primary into serious doubt,” said Clark in his ruling, referring to city employee Wanda Geter-Pataky and former city councilwoman Eneida Martinez, who were caught on video placing absentee ballots in a voter box, a violation of state law.
The judge ordered the Gomes and Ganim campaigns to meet with city election officials in the next 10 days to determine when the new primary will be held, with a deadline of Nov. 17 for an answer back to the court.
However, the ruling does not postpone next Tuesday’s election, nor did it void the primary’s results.
Gomes is on the ballot for the Bridgeport mayor’s race as a third-party candidate. If Ganim wins the election in the heavily-Democratic city and wins the new primary, he would remain as mayor. If Ganim wins the election but loses the primary, a new election would take place. Gomes said he would withdraw his case if he wins the election on Tuesday.
Photo of John Gomes courtesy of his campaign
