Citing an untimely court filing the city, with a concurrence from City Councilman Marcus Brown, has filed a motion with Superior Court Judge Barry Stevens to dismiss the cross complaint by State Rep. Jack Hennessy who is down two votes following the results of the August 9 Democratic primary in Connecticut’s 127 Assembly District.
Deputy City Attorney John Bohannon quotes state statute that requires a challenge of a primary to be filed within 14 days of the vote. Hennessy filed his complaint August 31, more than two weeks after the primary.
As a result Bohannon contends the court has no jurisdiction to hear the cross complaint. Hennessy’s lawyer disagrees.
From Bohannon’s motion:
Judge Stevens is expected to take up the party motions on Tuesday.
The Brown-Hennessy battle is a study in election and legal whiplash. On primary night tabulations showed Brown with a five-vote lead triggering an automatic recount. The recount the following week placed Hennessy up by a single vote but with a major caveat: nine absentee ballots counted on primary night had been stored away in a bag of another district. They were not tabulated in the recount.
Elections officials threw up their hands but certified a one-vote win for Hennessy.
Brown raced into court urging a manual recount of all the ballots. Judge Stevens agreed. The ballots were discovered and tabulated in the hand count giving Brown a two-vote edge and the certified winner.
Hennessy cried foul and filed a cross complaint to Brown’s court action but after the two-week statutory window to do so.
In his motion, Bohannon argues that an aggrieved candidate may challenge the ruling of an election official be it the candidate with the most votes or least. For example, he argues, if a candidate wins by 1,000 votes but believes there was a mistake in the count that would add more votes to the win column that candidate could be aggrieved to file a complaint.
Once Hennessy had a one-vote lead he was content to allow the results to stand without filing a complaint within the statutory guidelines. When he was declared the loser, following the manual recount, he only then filed a cross complaint to Brown’s original court filing.
Conclusion from Bohannon’s motion:
Read Bohannon’s motion here.
Read Brown’s motion to do the same here.
Read Hennessy’s objection to dismiss here.
The DTC’s fingerprints are all over this one!
I hope the judge rules recounts and cross complaints automatically extend the 14-day rule. No judge should dismiss a case still under judicial scrutiny. That’s what jurisdiction is all about!
Bohannon seeks to derail justice at its starting point.
Rep. Jack Hennessy is still the Winner, until Judge Stevens Deems other- wise!!!
Any first year Law Student will tell you that! As The Winner why should he have to file anything!?
And these Fluckers are running our city?!
Great news! The city’s motion to dismiss has been DENIED! The Hennessy campaign’s challenge of the primary results will be moving forward. There will be a hearing, on Friday, with witnesses attesting to Absentee Ballot fraud committed by the Brown Campaign (surprise, surprise) that are quite credible.
We are quite confident that the evidence will show the need for a new election or outright declaring Jack the victor, due to the purposeful actions on the behalf of the Brown Campaign, and the incompetence of the city of Bridgeport election officials.
This shows how vulnerable the Ganim/Testa/DTC machine is after all the below (and more), they still were unable to put this election decisively in the win column.
1. They Redistricted Rep Hennessy out of thousands of Bridgeport voters and drew a torturous route that ends at the Brown home.
2. getting massive donations and support from city employees (including the Democratic-Registrar of Voters Patricia Howard and Deputy Treasurer Inez Ayala)
3. As the evidence will show, once again cheating and breaking the law in regards to Absentee Ballots.
The machine is in trouble and they know it. The time for action is now.
Bridgeport has had ENOUGH!
ENOUGH of the DTC and their corruption.
ENOUGH of the ABSENTEE ballot cheating.
ENOUGH of Mario Testa.
ENOUGH of Joe Ganim
Let’s Break the machine.
*Ayala is Deputy Registrar not treasurer. Filing deadlines on my brain.
Not to mention the anemic 44 vote win in the senate race by the machine backed candidate against a candidate with legal trouble and 1/3 the financing.
Break the Machine!