A state judge has overturned the results of a Democratic primary in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Voters in that state's largest city will elect their next mayor in less than a week.
However, Superior Court Judge William Clark invalidated the results of the Sept. 12 primary after seeing early morning surveillance footage of an alleged supporter of Mayor Joe Ganim stuffing many ballots into an absentee ballot drop box.
Under Connecticut law, only the voter or their designee may drop a ballot in a designated drop box.
Ganim defeated John Gomes by 251 votes, overcoming his in-person deficit with absentee ballots.
“The volume of ballots so mishandled is such that it calls the result of the primary election into serious doubt and leaves the court unable to determine the legitimate results of the primary, Judge Clark wrote in his ruling.
The results “are shocking to the court and should be shocking to all the parties,” he added.
The case came before the Connecticut Superior Court after Gomes sued to have the primary results tossed out.
The CT Mirror reports on yesterday's ruling, possibly meriting a new election:
The judge ordered the two sides and city election officials to meet within the next 10 days to begin discussions about when to hold a primary and to have an answer by Nov. 17.
Gomes, who previously worked in Ganim's administration as a chief administrative officer, called the court's decision “a victory for the people of Bridgeport.”
“Our campaign always believed that the integrity of our democratic process must be upheld and Superior Court Judge William Clark agreed,” Gomes said in a prepared statement.
But the judge's decision on Wednesday to hold the new primary may not be the end of the legal drama.
Attorneys for the city indicated that they may file an appeal with the Connecticut Supreme Court.
The ruling does not halt next week's election. If Ganim is reelected, there will be another Democratic primary. Gomes is running as a third-party candidate. If he wins, his attorney has declared he'll withdraw his complaint.
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