Late boost in returned absentee ballots favors Ganim.

Bridgeport Democrats once more select a nominee for mayor of Connecticut’s largest city. The special primary was ordered by Superior Court Judge William Clark in response to a complaint by John Gomes, who was narrowly defeated (or maybe not) in the September regularly schedule primary.

The Ganim campaign has been subject to a series of mood swings during last year’s litigation and the second primary campaign that will end tonight. After a slow start, absentee ballots have been returned to the City Clerk’s office in numbers that have lifted the spirits of Team Ganim.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the number of returned ballots appeared to be headed for 1,900. While the Ganim campaign’s tactics in the dark art of getting supporters to request and return absentee ballots had to change after the autumn’s humiliating revelations of cheating, the incumbent mayor’s organization still knows who to contact to vote by absentee.

The two campaigns continued to battle over absentee ballots Monday. City attorneys representing Town Clerk Richard Buturla asked Judge Clark to sequester any returned ballots that were requested from 1,400 applications obtained by Gomes campaign supporter Denise Solano. Judge Clark sustained the Gomes’s objection to the request.

The continuing dispiriting revelations of absentee ballot manipulations may cause state voters not to approve a constitutional amendment that makes casting one easier that will be on the ballot in November.

Published January 23, 2024.