Former State Rep. Bob Keeley and zoning commissioner Anne Pappas Phillips will have a second shot at victory. Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis on Tuesday sided in favor of a proposed agreement by parties to schedule a new Democratic primary in the North End 133rd District on Nov. 14 with a general election for the district Dec. 5 after ruling an irregularity involving an absentee ballot required a new vote. Keeley challenged the primary results after a previously uncounted absentee ballot found its way into a recount giving incumbent Jeanette Herron a 1-vote lead.
This means electors in the North End district will go to the polls on Nov. 7 solely to vote in the Board of Education election. District Democrats will vote once again in the primary a week later and then all district electors in the general election Dec. 5. All four Democrats who competed in the September 12 primary will do so again Nov. 14: Keeley and Anne Pappas Phillips versus party-endorsed Herron and Michael DeFilippo who was the top vote getter. The top two finishers Nov. 14 will face Republicans Michele Minutolo and Neville De la Rosa Dec. 5.
“Well there certainly were irregularities and that’s why everyone is going to have a new primary,” Bellis declared in court Tuesday.
The Town Clerk’s Office is responsible for supervising the city’s absentee ballot vote. An absentee ballot that was not counted on primary night found its way into the recount after Keeley and Herron were tied at 170 votes.
Bellis, long suspicious of the city’s Democratic Party apparatus, directed a transcript of Town Clerk Don Clemons’ testimony to state investigative officials for review. Deputy City Attorney John Bohannon asserted, however, in court that the absentee ballot in question was nothing more than a record-keeping error and involved no impropriety.
Bellis appointed attorney Max Medina, former chair of the Board of Education, to oversee the primary and general election in the district.
Attorney Ed Maley representing Herron and DeFilippo said his clients were victimized by missteps of elections officials.
Shenanigans with absentee ballots? In Bridgeport? Say it ain’t so! Hopefully, this will lead to better oversight on the city’s elections, especially when it comes to absentee ballots.
Now let’s see how many legal absentee ballots DeFilippo and Herron get!
I said this on another post. If Keeley and Pappas-Phillips needs some help,in canvassing..there are people to help. The cherry on the top would be to knock off DeFilippo.
Ed Maley.. you know exactly what’s going on. Don’t give us your excuses.
Ed Maley is reoresenting his clients with all the zealousness required by the canons of ethics.
Meanwhile, back on the fairway…
Go bobby Go!!!
Clemons. How could you do this too someone you served with in Hartford.
Have you no shame???
This is truly Only in Bridgeport. I live in this District. Here at 3030 we were supposed to have had Supervised Absentee Balloting at every Election, but a staffer here never requested it. We had both candidates come to 3030 and present views, but few residents went to the polls on Election Day. More might have voted absentee (legally due to disabilities). So margin of 1 vote might have never happened.OMG!