The controversy began in September 2023 after Mayor Joe Ganim (D) defeated his Democratic challenger John Gomes by 251 votes in the mayoral primary. Gomes won at polling places, but Ganim prevailed after building a 694-vote advantage among absentee ballots.

Four days later, Gomes’s campaign posted excerpts on Facebook from security cameras outside the city government complex, according to CT Mirror. The footage allegedly showed Geter-Pataky making repeated early-morning visits to a drop box and depositing stacks of absentee ballots.

More video recordings surfaced during Gomes’s lawsuit. A state judge overturned the primary, called the evidence “shocking,” and ordered another vote because he could not determine the legitimate result.

However, the rerun ultimately produced a clearer outcome. Ganim defeated Gomes by 1,077 votes in January 2024, more than quadrupling his original margin. Moreover, Ganim won the polling-place vote this time, rather than relying on absentee ballots to overcome an in-person deficit.

The two Democrats met again in a rescheduled general election the following month, with Gomes running as an independent. Ganim won 6,366 votes to Gomes’s 4,131. Republican David Herz received 357.

Those results may have vindicated Ganim’s claim that voters wanted him to remain mayor. But they did not erase the conduct that caused the original primary results to become voided, nor the criminal cases that followed.

The shocking evidence of ballot stuffing in Bridgeport has only served to fuel the national election integrity debate, especially at a time when New Jersey officials recently discovered 6,600 individuals who were illegally registered to vote in the state, 400 of whom cast ballots in recent years. During a February interview, President Donald Trump called Connecticut “a very corrupt voting place,” in an unrelated jab at Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).

Trump more recently renewed his warnings about election vulnerabilities during a prime-time address earlier this month, which detailed alleged fraud “by a large-scale voter registration operation” in Michigan, among other key findings related to irregularities from the 2020 election.

Four days after Trump’s speech, the state’s Gov. Ned Lamont (D) and other Connecticut officials held a news conference to rebut him. Lamont accused Trump of attacking public confidence “without a shred of evidence,” according to a July 20 press release.

Yet in the same press release, Connecticut officials also highlighted cameras installed at ballot drop boxes and tighter absentee-ballot rules, though they conveniently left out any specific examples about what led them to tighten those security measures.

Local investigators ultimately charged nine people over the 2023 primary scandal. Geter-Pataky and Castillo were also charged over alleged misconduct in the 2019 Democratic primary, which Ganim won by 270 votes. Both pleaded not guilty to the 2019 charges and continue to contest their more recent charges.

Connecticut classifies many of the alleged offenses as Class D felonies punishable by up to five years. However, the statutes governing those offenses in the state do not impose mandatory minimum prison terms. Judges may suspend incarceration and order probation, plea agreements may eliminate charges, and sentences can run concurrently.

That discretion has already benefited lower-level defendants. Ganim campaign worker Silvia Ramos received a suspended two-year sentence and probation, a local ABC News affiliate reported in February.

DOJ SUFFERS SETBACK IN NEW JERSEY VOTER ROLL LAWSUIT DESPITE ILLEGAL REGISTRANTS SCANDAL

Meanwhile, municipal employee Robert Anderson pleaded guilty Tuesday to two ballot offenses and also avoided jail, and so far has managed to keep his job, according to an X post from independent reporter Kirsti Talmadge.

Prosecutors have not revealed whether Geter-Pataky or Castillo would face incarceration under their offers. Refusing the deals would place Bridgeport’s Democratic political machine and its absentee-ballot operation before a criminal court, with a trial possible as early as this fall.