John Gomes’ campaign has released a video that he alleges shows evidence of election tampering in the Bridgeport primary by a supporter of Mayor Joe Ganim. The video, posted to the Gomes campaign Facebook page, shows a woman dropping stacks of papers into an absentee ballot box outside the government center in Bridgeport, where the city’s registrar of voters office is located. The Gomes campaign alleges that the video shows Wanda Geter-Pataky, a Ganim supporter, dropping off stacks of absentee ballots ahead of the primary.
Connecticut law restricts who can return absentee ballots on behalf of voters. The campaign received the video footage from someone earlier this week following the primary and immediately filed a complaint with the State Elections Enforcement Commission. SEEC spokesman Josh Foley said Saturday night he could not confirm or deny the existence of a complaint involving the Bridgeport election on Tuesday.
The Bridgeport Police Department has opened an investigation into the actions depicted in the video footage and a parallel investigation into how the Gomes campaign came into possession of the footage. The police department released a statement to the CT Mirror reiterating these facts. The Bridgeport Police Department is actively investigating information regarding possible misconduct based upon a video that has surfaced on social media.
Ganim’s political campaign team released a statement on the video Sunday morning, noting that the matter “in its entirety” had been sent to the Bridgeport police for investigation. Most of the statement, however, focused largely on the fact that someone leaked city surveillance footage to the Gomes campaign. The video the Gomes campaign posted to its website includes timestamps at the bottom of the screen, suggesting it was taken from city surveillance cameras.
Gomes put out a press release on Saturday announcing a rally to “End Absentee Ballot Abuse in Bridgeport” and announced a press conference at his campaign headquarters on Monday. The campaign did not say whether it plans to use the video footage to challenge the results of Tuesday’s election.
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