Four Democrat workers were charged by Connecticut’s prosecutor on Tuesday for allegedly misusing absent votes in Bridgeport’s 2019 Democratic gubernatorial primary.
In a statement announcing the allegations, Chief State’s Attorney Patrick Griffin said,” Our democracy depends on dignity of our election process. I hope that Connecticut’s forthcoming elections will not be tampered with, thanks to these prosecutions.
The Bridgeport people arrested Tuesday include Alfredo Castillo, a Bridgeport area councillor, and Wanda Geter- Pataky, the evil head of the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee. According to local media, Nilsa Heredia and Josephine Edmonds,” two additional strategy employees who were involved in the 2019 poll between Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim and his Democratic opponent Marilyn Moore,” are also on the charge.
These people are accused of” Unlawful Possession of Absentee Vote,” according to the press release from Griffin’s office, with Castillo and all others facing witness tampering charges.
Geter-Pataky is accused of allegedly violating the eligibility requirements for voting absentee ballot when she allegedly told a member to pick up the individual’s absentee ballot and for failing to mark as an assister on an absentee vote program she had filled out on behalf of a possible vote. The citizen in question, according to Griffin’s office, “later told ]state ] investigators that the defendant told her not to speak to anyone about the matter”.
Meanwhile,” ]c ] ourt records show Heredia]allegedly ] instructed prospective voters on which candidate to select on their absentee ballots and misrepresented eligibility requirements for voting by absentee ballot”. Heredia allegedly confessed to state investigators that she “did not submit an absentee ballot distribution list to the City of Bridgeport Clerk’s Office.”
Castillo and Edmonds ‘ arrest warrant affidavits also reveal allegedly committed election crimes.
The former is accused of “keeping up an absentee ballot distribution list, misrepresenting eligibility requirements for voting by absentee ballot, and failing to sign as an assister on an absentee ballot application in August 2019”. The city councilman allegedly “denied helping the prospective voter fill out the application but later admitted he had filled out portions of the application” when he was deposed by state officials in October 2021.
According to Griffin’s office, Edmonds is accused of “being present when four prospective voters filled out their absentee ballots and taking possession of them when she left their home” as well as “failing to maintain an absentee ballot distribution list and tampering with a witness for having told her not to testify truthfully in court.”
On June 24, these individuals are scheduled to appear in court.
The name Geter-Pataky should be familiar to those who have read about the scandal that shook Bridgeport’s Democratic mayoral primary last year.
According to Mark Hemingway’s Mark Hemingway, surveillance video that was leaked following the city’s September Democrat mayoral primary allegedly showed Geter-Pataky stuffing ballot boxes, according to a report from The Federalist. The incident occurred weeks after the state’s e-elections commission in Connecticut recommended that Geter-Pataky, Castillo, and Heredia be held accountable for their alleged actions in the aforementioned 2019 mayoral primary.
In his Nov. 1 decision, Superior Court Judge William F. Clark determined there was, as Hemingway summarized, “merit to accusations that Bridgeport’s incumbent mayor, Joe Ganim, won his election as a result of significant fraud involving absentee ballots”. If Ganim won the general election, Clark was inspired to order a new primary to be held, which he did later that month. In the do-over primary in January, Ganim won the following general election, which followed.
Shawn Fleetwood is a graduate of the University of Mary Washington and a staff writer for The Federalist. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClear Health, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
