Report: Democratic Mayor Faces Potential Ouster After ‘Shocking’ Evidence Discovered

The mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut, the largest city in the state, could lose his job next month after a court ordered a redo of the Democratic primary. 

Mayor Joe Ganim was reelected in the general election in November, but after a judge ruled that there was “shocking” evidence of ballot harvesting, it was ordered that the city redo their Democratic primary, which took place in September.

If Ganim does not win the nomination next month, the town will have another mayoral general election in February with his opponent taking on the nomination. 

Ballot harvesting occurs when a third party collects and returns many ballots, and last month, video surveillance showed a Ganim supporter appear to drop stacks of absentee ballots into a drop box. Ganim won in September’s primary by just 251 votes and has served seven terms as mayor. 

Connecticut has strict laws regarding who can turn in someone else’s ballot, and ballot harvesting itself is illegal.

“I own the fact that the court found people connected with my campaign engaged in serious voting irregularities,” Ganim told reporters in December, according to the Connecticut Mirror. However, he demanded that his opponent, John Gomes, admit “multiple people associated with his campaign engaged in clearly unlawful ballot behavior in the primary as well.”

Gomes, meanwhile, has denied that anyone in his campaign committed any illegal acts, claiming the city has not provided any evidence of wrongdoing by his campaign or supporters, even after they were subpoenaed. 

“The City defendants could have compelled their testimony and they voluntarily chose not to do so,” Gomes told NBC News. “The City defendants could have introduced any relevant video and also chose not to do so during the court hearing. In fact, they withdrew their defense that the Gomes campaign committed misconduct, and did not raise it in any post-trial briefing.”

The race is one of three election do-overs that have occurred this year or will occur in the beginning of next year. Election redos have been a rare occurrence, but one in Wisconsin occurred in November over a nonpartisan town chair contest, which had irregularities in a tight race coming down to a single vote. The other sees the redo of an election for sheriff in Louisiana.

The Democratic primary redo in Connecticut will take place on Jan. 23, 2024.

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