Five people, including three Bridgeport council members and the vice chairwoman of the city’s Democratic party were charged with election-related crimes on Friday as part of a sprawling investigation into the city’s 2023 Democratic primary, which resulted in widespread allegations of absentee ballot fraud and a judge overturning the results of that election.
Law enforcement sources confirmed that Maria Pereira, Alfredo Castillo and Jazmarie Melendez — all of whom are sitting city council members — are facing numerous criminal allegations for either taking possession of voters’ absentee ballots, being present while voters filled out those ballots or mispresenting who is eligible to vote via absentee.
Meanwhile, Wanda Geter-Pataky, the vice chair of the city’s Democratic Town Committee, is facing 93 separate criminal charges including a conspiracy to take possession of multiple voters’ absentee ballots.
The fifth person who was charged is Margaret Joyce, a Stratford resident, who allegedly participated in the absentee ballot push during the 2023 election.
Geter-Pataky, who is facing the most serious charges, became the face of the 2023 election scandal after she was captured on surveillance footage allegedly depositing stacks of absentee ballots into a drop box outside the city’s government center.
The criminal charges filed against the Bridgeport Democrats are the first to emerge out of the months-long investigation into alleged absentee ballot fraud during the 2023 election between Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim and his Democratic challenger John Gomes.
Ganim won that primary election by roughly 251 votes, based on the strength of his absentee ballot returns, but several weeks later, a state Superior Court judge overturned Ganim’s victory and ordered a new primary, arguing the election had been marred by “shocking” evidence of “blatant” ballot harvesting.
Ganim later defeated Gomes in two subsequent court-ordered elections that were held in early 2024, and he retained his position running Connecticut’s largest city.
In the meantime, dozens of complaints were filed with the State Election Enforcement Commission, alleging campaign workers, political candidates and Democratic Party officials — associated with both mayoral candidates — committed election-related crimes.
The SEEC, which is responsible for investigating election violations, dismissed some of those complaints for lack of evidence or because witnesses would not cooperate. But SEEC members also voted to refer nine of those cases to the Chief State’s Attorney’s office for potential criminal prosecution.
Pereira, Castillo and Melendez were all on the ballot during the 2023 primary. But they were split on who they were supporting for mayor.
The Democratic primaries in Bridgeport often decide who is elected to state and local office in that city, and those elections frequently feature warring factions who aggressively pursue absentee voters.
This is also not the first time allegations of absentee ballot abuse have sprung out of Bridgeport elections. The city has a long history of elected officials and party leaders being accused of violating the state’s election laws.
Castillo and Geter-Pataky are already facing separate criminal charges for allegedly taking possession of another voter’s absentee ballot during Bridgeport’s 2019 Democratic mayoral primary. Both of them are also close allies of Ganim, who returned to office in 2015 after serving a seven year prison sentence on federal corruption charges.
Pereira and Melendez, on the other hand, were supporters of Gomes, who was seeking to unseat Ganim after working within the mayor’s administration.
Geter-Pataky, who previously worked in the Bridgeport government, was terminated from her government job late last year after being placed on paid administrative leave following the 2023 election. But even with all of the criminal allegations leveled against her, local Democratic leaders reelected her as the vice chair of Bridgeport’s Democratic party last year.
Officials with the Connecticut State Democratic Party did not return a phone call Friday. Roberto Alves, who recently became the state party chairman, also did not respond to an email seeking comment on the charges that were unveiled Friday.
An investigation by the Connecticut Mirror found that Geter-Pataky helped to sign up at least 537 Bridgeport voters for absentee ballots during that election. And she was assisted in that effort by Alfredo Castillo, who signed out many of those absentee ballot applications from the Bridgeport town clerk’s office.
Pereira, Melendez and their allies orchestrated a similar campaign to sign up hundreds of Bridgeport voters for absentee ballots, the CT Mirror’s investigation found.
Under Connecticut’s laws, political candidates, campaign staffers and party officials can help people to request an absentee ballot.
But the charges unveiled on Friday allege that both campaigns strayed into criminality by helping people fill out the actual ballots and harvesting those ballots so they could be submitted to local election officials.
The records from the 2023 primary show Melendez helped at least 230 people fill out applications for absentee ballots. Pereira assisted another 179, and also helped several voters to request replacement ballots after she alleged that Geter-Pataky and other Ganim supporters stole those voters’ initial ballots.