Marilyn Moore insists she wasn’t shocked four years ago when a blizzard of absentee ballots cast in favor of Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim blew away her victory at the polls. Too many people told her what was coming.
“I can’t say how many people predicted I would lose on the absentee ballots,” Moore, a Democratic state senator, said in an interview Tuesday. “They expected it. They expected it. It’s just the way it is.”
The same thing happened last week to John Gomes, this year’s challenger to Ganim. As did Moore, he beat Ganim at the polls in the Democratic mayoral primary — only to get crushed by the mayor in absentee voting, 1,545 to 851.
But there was a difference this time: leaked security video that apparently shows a woman repeatedly and furtively depositing absentee ballots into a drop box outside city offices in downtown Bridgeport. The CT Mirror has not independently confirmed the authenticity of the video.
The Gomes campaign identified the woman as Wanda Geter-Pataky, a city employee, vice chair of the Democratic town committee — and one of the people accused in an unsuccessful lawsuit four years ago of illegally collecting absentee ballots for Ganim.
The video has reignited suspicions of fraud in the abnormally high use of absentee voting in Connecticut’s largest city, fueled demands by Gov. Ned Lamont and others for an investigation, and sent Gomes to court to challenge the results.
Superior Court Judge William Clark issued an order Tuesday instructing Ganim and city and state election officials to appear Monday to show cause why he should not issue an injunction blocking certification of Ganim’s victory.
Gomes wants the court to either declare him a winner or order a new primary — an extraordinary resolution but not an…
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