(Daily360.com) Four people have been charged for fraud and election tampering in a Democratic primary for a mayoral race in Bridgeport, Connecticut that occurred in 2019. The primary race was between Marilyn Moore and incumbent Mayor Joe Ganim. Moore appeared to win the race on election day, but Ganim was declared the winner after the absentee ballots were counted.
Officials on the election board voted unanimously to seek criminal charges for some of the individuals involved in the two campaigns. Josephine Edmonds worked for the Moore campaign and is accused of altering absentee ballots. She misspelled a voter’s name on a ballot that she altered and the voter affirmed that they did not submit the ballot.
Alfred Castillo is a current city councilman in Bridgeport and is charged with mishandling ballots. He worked with the Ganim campaign and is also charged with illegally possessing absentee ballots. A resident at the time of the election said Castillo picked up the ballot from his house, but he hadn’t yet filled out the ballot. Castillo denied knowing or taking the ballot from the resident, but later said that his handwriting is on the ballot.
The two other individuals getting charged with election crimes were part of Ganim’s campaign. Ganim won the election narrowly by 270 votes in 2019. He again won the election in 2023 after all of the absentee ballots were tallied. The same accusations that arose from the 2019 election have been suggested in the more recent Bridgeport mayoral contest from 2023.
A supporter of Ganim spent four months going around Bridgeport to assist voters in filling out primary absentee ballots. Throughout the process, she helped 537 voters fill out ballots. This accusation spawned an investigation, a court battle, and a redo election. Ganim won the redo election after it was pushed back to 2024.
Ganim was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2003 for corruption while he was mayor of Bridgeport. He was reelected in 2015 and has been the mayor since.
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