Superior Court Judge Barry Stevens has set a hearing for Oct. 1, 2 p.m. regarding a lawsuit claiming absentee ballot irregularities from the September 10 Democratic primary. The complaint brought with the assistance of the community group Bridgeport Generation Now whose leadership supports State Senator Marilyn Moore seeks a new primary. Gemeen Davis, who has taken a leave of absence from Generation Now, serves as her campaign manager.
Mayor Joe Ganim defeated Moore 5,304 to 5,034, factoring in absentee ballots.
Several lawyers interviewed by OIB who discussed the complaint on background and are not involved in the case raised a number of questions about the lawsuit including:
The standing of the plaintiffs to bring the case.
Weak evidence of actual absentee ballot fraud.
Disenfranchisement of a majority of the electors.
Harm caused to other candidates on the ballot where absentee ballots are not in question.
No preponderance of evidence to question the 270-vote spread.
Candidates involved in the primary not parties to the case including Moore.
No evidence that the election outcome is in doubt.
Meanwhile defendants named in the lawsuit deny the allegations in the complaint, according to the Connecticut Post including Jorge Cruz and Rosemary Wong. The paper’s headline declared the lawsuit a long shot.
“I’m disappointed that Bridgeport Generation made these false allegations,” Cruz said Tuesday. “They’re vicious because their candidate lost an election. They’re supposed to be nonpartisan and yet they deviate from their position. They lost and they want to create a burden on the senior citizens. It’s unfortunate.”
The 23-page lawsuit also makes allegations against Rosemary Wong, a member of the Stratford Democratic Town Committee who occasionally helps out in Bridgeport. Wong said Tuesday that she handled about 40 absentee ballot applications.
… “I’m shocked to hear that,” Wong said Tuesday, stressing that she knows the right way to handle absentee ballots. State law allows political operatives to provide applications for voters, but they cannot be present when voters mark ballots, nor are they allowed to possess or handle completed ballots.
“They’re only given to people who are qualified: a physical disability or an illness,” she said. “I understand the proper way of doing an application. I’ve been doing applications for a long time.” Voters away on military service, or out of town the day of balloting, are also allowed to use absentee ballots.
Judge Stevens order:
The F.B.l. can’t even figure out where all the money went from the metal scandal in the Public Facilities DEPT!
Now you want answers about illegal absentee ballots! Whoa Pilgrim, Let’s deal with one scandal at a time.
The parties named in the suit will have their day in court to testify, under oath. Good. The plaintiffs’ case has merit or it would have been dismissed.
To me it doesn’t appear Marilyn Moore could always be truthful under oath.
To me it appears you are trying to deflect attention away from the absentee ballot fraud perpetrated on Ganim’s behalf.
Looks more like a distraction effort by Marilyn Moore. I caught up with this since September 11, 2019– the day after the primary. While the masses were falling for it, I wondered, What is Moore hiding? What is Moore distracting the masses about? Instead of following the crowd, I took a detour from the AB fiasco to were the electoral process starts–the Marilyn Moore petitions to get on the WFP line. In a matter of several hours , the I discovered evidence that points to Marilyn Moore committed Petition Plagiarism (a new OIB term). Today at around 2:30 PM, I paid The State Elections Enforcement Commission a visit and filed a complaint against Marilyn Moore relating to one petition she claimed to have circulated under oath.
I’m listening. Can you expand this?
Stay tuned.
Methinks there will be enough to make all of this go away quickly when they do a comparison and find that Marilyn Morrow’s campaign has fraudulent signatures as well. Which has always been the word in the upper circles as a reality. Reality is Joe is going to be the next mayor of McBridgeport and Marylin Moore will be on record as she is already for questionable judgement. Which will only serve to damage her as it should. The Pied Piper of false hope.
Really, “stevenl”? The people of the city of Bridgeport are suffering from fatigue. We’ve had enough of Joe Ganim.
OK.
You do not live in the CIty any longer.
You do not use your full name. Why not? Your entries are mostly cheering contests for the current administration and “jeering” matches for folks with a different view.
Do you have any financial, employment, property value risk facing you in the City at this time? Have you benefited in any way from the extended Ganim family and providing payback these days?
If there is no reason for your elation that has a pragmatic base, should we move to questioning your vilification of Senator Moore based on unexplored privilege or underexplored sexism or racist tendencies. How do you derive joy from the temporary circumstances of others? Senator Moore’s trouble at this moment is so different from that where Joseph Ganim left City employ to spend 7 years behind bars. Where is your sense of perspective? Perhaps you can provide your full name and address, just as the City Council requires me to do at each public speaking session? Time will tell.
Derek Brown, I don’t like it either. But until a real candidate comes out to play for real thisjis how it’s gonna go. There is voter fatigue and quite realistic. This city just beats you over the head. How could you not feel fatigue especially if you carried hope and optimism. That’s the most painful . There are good people cheering for change and this is what they get and that is a crime.
None of this matters, Joel. What’s on point? The AB scandal. Denise Merrill didn’t take action until the free press made it front page news.
Everyone in Bridgeport knows Mario Testa has a well oiled and efficient AB operation for the benefit of candidates endorsed by the DTC. The Democratic State Committee knows about it too. Why mess with the town commitees, the electoral duchies that produce the votes?
Hearst CT Media is not going to put this story on page three. Joe Ganim learned a valuable lesson back in 2001: headline ink doesn’t wash off, it only smears.
Isn’t Ms. Davis on a leave of absence from Generation Now while serving as the Campaign Manager for Marilyn Moore?
That’s not illegal, Tom. Just so much nitpicking. Joel is looking for dirt on Marilyn Moore. I have to wonder why. Maybe there is something tn be gained.
It is not surprising the Ganim faction would engage in rumor mongering to discredit Senator Moore. Disappointing at any rate, not surprising he would stoop so low. He can’t limit the damage to his campaign or his reputation-everyone knows he is a weasel. The dirt on absentee ballots is going to come out in court next month. Can’t do anything to stop that. At this point Marilyn Moore’s write in campaign could succeed in removing him from office. So he is taking the sleazy route, character assassination. Ganim is fighting for a pay check; the rest are doing it out of personal pique. Shame on him for his greed and avarice. Shame on the others for being so goddamn petty.
“Joel is looking for dirt on Marilyn Moore.” Whenever I have a need for “dirt” , I know where to find you. What the hell you think Bpt, Gen Now and the Moore camp are looking for? Look at the youtube video recorded 6 years ago and look at who they use as a witness–Beth Lazar. When I started examining the first and only document (Petition circulated by Moore) doubt and suspicion jumped out at me. The white woman from Fairfield who told me over the phone that it was a blackman who asked her and her husband to sign the petition, Is not “dirt”.
Here’s a link involving Fairfield’s Registrar Matthew Waggner (D).
But before you go there, let me tell OIB what took place at the Registrar’s office when I requested the voter cards of the Kellys. I walked in to the office and aked the assistant for the Registrar. She told, “Hell be back soon”, and he quickly appeared. He asked how he could help me and I asked to view the copies of Reg. Cards for the Kelly’s. He put both card on the counter where I had the copy of the petition allegedly circulated by Moore. He sat on his chair as I checked if the signatures match. He asked what I was looking for when I told him that the petition was circulated by Marilyn Moore. He jump up from his chair to the counter and took a look. He then said, “what does that prove?” He became argumentative for about 2 minutes trying discourage me and giving me his unsolicited opinion about what I was doing. It got to the point where he wanted to jump over the counter and strangle me. With his approval, the secretary made a copy of the two card and handled it to me. On the way out, I asked myself, “What the fuck is wrong with him?” It turns out that Matthew Waggner is Marilu Moore’s Campaign Treasurer. Small world!
Blah-blah-blah, Joel. If your information was so earth shaking the SEEC wovld be looking into it. At the present time the commision is investigating absentee ballot fraud, not the paranoid conspiracy theories of a self mutilator.
Derek, This case won’t even end up on Judge Judy. It will eventually end up like a salad. Tossed!
You can’t say with any certainty, Tom.
That is a certain statement.
I’ll wait for the judge’s ruling, Tom.
Isn’t it something.
CT Post runs a story today on its website that Wanda Geter-Pataky was honored by state and local Democrats for the work she does in the community. Obviously, according to law suits filed, that work would included “harvesting” Absentee Ballots.
How’s that saying go Lennie. “Only In Bridgeport!”
Harvesting is part of Connecticut’s agricultural history, and Absentee Ballots happen to be the crop of choice if you are the incumbent with few campaign promises achieved and a “killer rejection” by Democrats in the State in the gubernatorial primary.
Finch was the “green initiative” Mayor and his OPED director reported missing nearly $1 million from his budget on Finch’s last week or so. Has Joe looked at where that money went settling Port Authority debt? Has he seen a Port Authority report from Tom Gill who was looking for a forensic audit of Port Authority books two years ago? Were all Port Authority agreements met (food store in East End, etc.) before property transfers? How would you know? Discover? Time will tell.
A spokes person for the Democratic State Party said that right now they are only accusations. You can’t take the award away for only accusations, can you???
State Rep Chris Rosario said that a lot of people who lose to her in an election only see that side of her.
Wow, that’s a ringing endorsement for all that’s wrong in the Democratic Party.
I am going to post one of my comments AGAIN about this posting with some addendum. I asked a few hours earlier;What kind of pablum was posted here on OIB. It sounds like Testa’s lawyer sent some script to OIB. This OIB posting showed that there is no objectivity on this blog. I really feel sorry for the some who come here to post emotional comments or erudite comments. It’s all a waste of time. Never again will I look at OIB. GOOD RIDDANCE.
Also mentioned in the article is how Lydia Martinez and Wanda were credited with helping getting Antonio Felipe elected State Rep earlier this year.
Antonio Felipe, with the help of Geter & Martinez, also lost on the machines but won with overwhelming support in Absentee Ballots.
Dejavu, six (6) years I ago recorded this video. THE ELECTED OFFICIALS HERE HAVE DONE LITTLE TO NOTHING AS FAR AS PASSING LEGISLATION TO PREVENT AB FRAUD OR MISHANDLING.
https://youtu.be/BoOaH1ALfA4
What’s the end game here?,to nullify the primary and re-do it?,to expose AB abuse in Bpt once again?.This “probe” happens after every Bpt election,been going on for years,nothing has changed,nothing will change.Unless you get rid of the AB’s totally or better yet,force Mario to step down(btw,neither is happening soon),Bpt will not get an honest election.We just need to move on.Moore can act outraged,but the real story here is her and her team failed.They had one job,collect 200 some odd signatures to get on the ballot election day,and they couldn’t do it,bottom line.At this point,the only way to get rid of Joe is another indicment.
Absolutely correct.
Mr Weintraub you always struck me as a discerning person.
This is quite different from the past. Surely you see the gravity and import of how an incumbent was defeated by popular vote on the machines, can’t you?
Bob,sure I see the gravity of the situation, but in reality,what can we do about it? Back in June I was posting that Moore couldn’t win this primary because of the AB manipulation.it was a forgone conclusion. And you know what?, in Marilyn’s heart of hearts, I don’t believe she really wanted it,you can’t convince me otherwise. The whole situation is just disheartening.
She didn’t want it. And that’s why this happened. There’s no excuse for this to have happened to her unless she did purposefully or, ignorantly. Neither of those choices are acceptable.
Yeah, Moore’s team failed, WFP failed. Looks like we’re stuck with Joe The Weasel for another four years.
Thanks Harvey. You boiled it down to the essence.
Rigged elections are a way of life in Bridgeport.
The people who rig them are honored by the state Democratic Party.
Get used to it.
Get a backup plan to your backup plan to your backup plan. Nd if that don’t work, well, too bad. Live with it.
Maybe get the signatures needed to be on the ballot no matter what? Problem solved, no?
State leadership has it within their power to effect true democracy and give Moore a place on the ballot. Absolutely!
From a galloping horse…..quick observation:
Bridgeport, small in area, but Connecticut’s largest population…density
75%-80% minority (Hispanic, Afro American, etc.)
Unbalanced party representation with Democrats 11x registration of Republican with balance unaffiliated about 20,000.
Low turnouts are the norm. Tough to get economically wounded, old or infirm, with significant rate of unemployment, retired and highly taxed residents (just holding on to housing in face of foreclosure wave from 2008) to be hopeful and vote………
But they did for Senator Marilyn Moore. That is the story. David and Goliath battle in Bridgeport. But it is unfinished. Keep your eye on the finishing line in November. Defeat Hate. VOTE. Time will tell.
12,000 out of 145,000 = 8%