Even the NY Times admits there is problem. And this type of rampant election fraud isn’t limited solely to Connecticut:
Election Fraud…in Bridgeport, Conn.
Voters say that campaigns in Connecticut’s largest city routinely rely on absentee ballots — collected illegally — to win elections. Now, the city faces a mayoral primary redo.
The unlikely & confusing situation arose after a judge ruled that there was enough evidence of misconduct in the Democratic primary in September to throw its result…into doubt. The judge pointed to videos showing ‘partisans’ repeatedly stuffing absentee ballots into drop boxes.
The footage provided a particularly lurid illustration of ballot tampering…
But in Bridgeport, Connecticut’s largest city, ballot manipulation has undermined elections for years.
In interviews & in court testimony, residents of the city’s low-income housing complexes described people sweeping through their apartment buildings, often pressuring them to apply for absentee ballots they were not legally entitled to. Sometimes, residents say, campaigners fill out the applications or return the ballots for them — all of which is illegal.
‘Bridgeport has a very long, tortured history of absentee ballot abuse,’ said Bill Bloss, a lawyer who persuaded the judge to order the fall primary to be rerun.
‘It’s not a secret,’ he added. ‘It has been going on for years.’
Last June, the State Election Enforcement Commission found evidence of criminality in the 2019 Democratic primary for mayor. In 2022, a judge ordered a Democratic primary for state representative to be rerun amid an allegation of ballot fraud.
In 2018, Bridgeport was forced to hold three primaries for City Council. The first was invalidated over a miscounted absentee ballot; the second was voided by the State Supreme Court in part because a police officer had improperly collected absentee ballots.
Similar episodes have been documented back to the 1980s, though political observers say they cannot remember how the tradition of ballot manipulation initially took hold. Such manipulation has led to forgery charges, fines & even bans on participating in campaigns.
‘It is just simply part of the electoral strategy political culture in Bridgeport,’ Mr. Bloss said. ‘The perception is that you can win elections in Bridgeport by harvesting absentee ballots. And so, they do it.’
‘It is routine here,’ said State Senator Marilyn Moore, whose district includes parts of Bridgeport and who lost to Mayor Ganim in 2019. She added: ‘People just accept it. Like, ‘It’s just Bridgeport.’’
A far greater % of voters in Bridgeport use absentee ballots than in many other Connecticut communities…. In the 2023 primaries, almost 23% of Bridgeport’s votes were absentee ballots, compared with about 15% in Hartford & under 5% in New Haven.
In 2019, three voters sued Mayor Ganim, city election officials & others. About a dozen voters testified that someone else had filled out at least part of their absentee ballot application for them, or submitted a fraudulent application. Others testified that absentee ballots never came or had just shown up in the mail, even if they hadn’t applied. Others said they did not vote, but the town clerk had a record of their ballots.