John Gomes, a former Democratic candidate for mayor of Bridgeport, is asking the legislature to add election reform to the list of issues to be tackled in a potential special session.
Gomes recently sent a letter to Speaker of the House Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, stating that while he has previously supported the state’s funding of election monitors in Bridgeport, he believes more needs to be done to “restore hope and faith in the electoral process in Connecticut’s largest city.”
Legislators have set aside funds for election monitors, managed by the Secretary of the State’s (SOTS) office, since 2020, when Gov. Ned Lamont signed a piece of special legislation giving municipalities more time to count absentee ballots as they grappled with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the 2020 general election and requiring the state to contract an election monitor for Bridgeport.
During the most recent legislative session, lawmakers approved $300,000 in funding in the state budget to keep election monitors in Bridgeport through the 2026 general election. The money was earmarked for the Secretary of the State’s office to hire two additional election monitors and to run a bilingual, educational marketing campaign on voting rights.
“Unfortunately, I do not believe that throwing more money for outside election monitors and awareness marketing campaigns is a good long-term solution for years of systemic absentee ballot fraud.” Gomes wrote in a September 24 letter to Ritter.
Alleged election fraud relating to mail ballots in Bridgeport’s last two Democratic mayoral primaries has resulted in arrests, court cases, and orders for new elections.
In 2023, Gomes ultimately lost the primary to incumbent Joe Ganim after absentee ballots were counted. Gomes initially refused to concede, and an investigation was soon launched after a video of two women, including former Bridgeport official Wanda Geter-Pataky, allegedly stuffing envelopes into an absentee ballot drop-off box surfaced.
A superior court judge subsequently ordered a new trial, finding that the number of absentee ballots counted vastly outnumbered those that monitoring cameras recorded submitting ballots. Ganim won a second primary, which was held after the 2024 general election, which he also won. Ganim also won a second general election, where Jones ran as an independent candidate.
Prior to the second primary, Stephanie Thomas, the secretary of the state, in a press release, urged voters to go to the polls in person, rather than voting by mail. Thomas previously said the scandal was the result of “bad actors” and an “under-educated electorate” rather than systemic issues with absentee ballots.
“When the Secretary of the State makes a statement urging all eligible Bridgeport residents to vote in-person on Primary Day in an official press release, it shows the state’s top election official has no confidence in the validity of the mail-in vote process in Bridgeport. We need new stricter laws and heavy penalties.” Gomes wrote in the letter to Ritter.
“To ignore (significant mishandling of ballots by partisans) would undermine the clear intention of the statutes which specifically prohibits such ballot contact and would endorse this blatant practice of ballot harvesting. It would also endorse the illegal conduct engaged in by these partisan actors and the improper counting of invalid votes.” Gomes continued.
There were several bills introduced last session that sought to institute reforms but none ultimately passed. One, which Thomas requested be introduced, would have prohibited anyone convicted of any election-related crime from handling absentee ballots or candidate petitions for 12 years. While the bill had bipartisan support, legislative procedure may have resulted in its failure to reach final passage.
Speculation on whether a special session will be called this fall continues. Gov. Ned Lamont recently signaled tentative support for calling a special session after the federal government failed to meet a deadline to pass a funding bill and shut down. Legislators have been floating the idea that they might need to return to deal with the consequences of funding cuts and other policy decisions coming out of Washington. After Lamont vetoed a controversial housing bill, citing the need for revision and buy-in from local leaders, he promised a special session dedicated “solely to housing.”
Ritter’s office did not respond to a request for comment about whether election reforms might be on the table in a special session should one be called.
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Why do elected politicians who become our representatives, refuse to do their job and provide answers to questions asked.
This does not reflect oaths taken and they can be legally removed for obstruction of justice.
No wonder Connecticut state is the most corrupt state in the United States.