BRIDGEPORT, Conn — The ballot fraud in Bridgeport has thrust Connecticut into the national spotlight. A new primary will be held - but will that change anything?
No matter how many elections Bridgeport has, voters said little will change until the system is changed.
The campaigns are slinging mud, city councilors are getting arrested and public officials are dodging questions. So who really lost in Bridgeport?
“We have to come out and name and claim justice and take the freedom of our vote seriously, " said Bridgeport voter Ann Perrin.
Tuesday’s municipal elections brought out a 33% turnout statewide, but lower in Bridgeport. People feel their vote doesn’t matter.
“I don’t vote. I’ve seen what happened on TV. I think that’s embarrassing to Bridgeport,” said Leonardo Ortiz of Bridgeport.
There will be another election. But has anything changed about the system?
“It’s outrageous. Just get rid of the boxes completely. One vote, one person, I.D. It’s all you need,” said Ray Berry of Bridgeport.
The absentee ballot drop boxes were established in 2020 for COVID. Every town has at least one. They are usually outside. Some are placed under cameras but many are not.
Then there’s the ballots themselves.
Connecticut doesn’t do signature verification or check to make sure the reason you request to vote absentee is legitimate. Nor does the state have a way to distinguish between mailed and drop box ballots.
Some things have changed. Connecticut is getting new voting machines. All brands are on the table.
“There are only a very small number of companies in the entire country who are authorized by the federal government to make these machines. So we will put out an RFP,” said Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas.
For Bridgeport, they got a temporary election monitor in Peggy Reeves. But she’s installed at the clerk’s office.
The evidence suggests that harvesting happens at home.
“We have asked, from the Governor on down, to step in. We have elected officials both here and the state level who have been quiet because they are part of the system that has been favoring their election,” said candidate for Mayor John Gomes.
Gov, Ned Lamont spoke on this issue in September.
“I want to go after this aggressively,” said Lamont.
But when Republicans urged a special session to tackle election security - nothing happened.
“I think we did tackle it,” said Lamont on Thursday. “We’ve got video cameras on each and every one of those drop boxes and that’s how we are able to see that people are probably trying to stuff the boxes. We caught it.”
But the only reason it was caught was thanks to a whistleblower. It’s not as if the city discovered it and released it to be transparent. In fact, all of that ballot box video gets erased after 30 days.
Matt Caron is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at mcaron@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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