BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim has won a do-over election in Connecticut’s most populous city, months after a judge threw out the results of the first one because of allegations of absentee ballot box stuffing during a Democratic primary.
Ganim on Tuesday defeated fellow Democrat John Gomes, the city’s former acting chief administrative officer.
Gomes successfully battled in court to get the mayoral race rerun on the grounds that the original result was tainted by voting irregularities. Yet in the end, he was not able to turn that legal victory into votes.
Tuesday marked the fourth straight time Ganim bested Gomes in voting during the messy and protracted election, including the now-voided primary in September, a nullified general election in November and a rerun primary last month. Ganim also defeated Republican David Herz.
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The effort to override the original primary results in court was successful, using evidence that appeared to show Ganim supporters stuffing absentee ballots into outdoor ballot collection boxes. While he admitted that his supporters broke the law, Ganim never admitted to any involvement in the illegal activity.
The court judge ordered the original primary results to be tossed out and a new one to take place. As a result of this decision, the results of the general election in November did not count.
Ganim won over Gomes in the new Democrat primary that was held in January by 1,154 votes, according to the Associated Press.
Gomes, who is Ganim's former acting chief administrative officer, ran as an independent for the fourth time voters have had to tally their choice for mayor.
Ganim received the notable endorsements of former challengers, including 2018 gubernatorial primary competitor Gov. Ned Lamont, and Lamond Daniels, a Democrat who ran as an independent in the November election.
Bridgeport's mayor, who was first elected in 1991, was in office for 12 years, until he left his role and went to prison for corruption, having been convicted of racketeering, extortion, and other corruption-related crimes, the AP said. After 7 years in prison, he was reinstated as mayor in the 2015 mayoral election.
David Herz also appeared on the ballot in Tuesday's election as a Republican challenger to both Gomes and Ganim, who previously said that Bridgeport needs a new change of direction and that "it's not going to make a difference which one" is running.
Connecticut's largest city is heavily Democratic with over 148,000 residents, and has most recently seen a "steady, albeit low" voter turnout in the past 3 elections, which some suggest may be the result of "election fatigue," the AP said.
Aside from September's mayoral primary, which brought the city into national discussion over the publicly released videos of alleged voter fraud, Bridgeport has also seen accusations of absentee ballot manipulation from at least 1986, according to the AP, when five Democrats were arrested for collecting people's ballots.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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