Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim supports the state’s call for nonpartisan volunteers with legal experience to help monitor the city's Democratic primary redo next week.
His campaign had asked Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas to allow citizen volunteer monitors for the election.
“We asked her to think about doing this a while ago. So her timing is right and we appreciate it. It allows for all of us to be a part of this campaign, this primary, this election on January 23,” Ganim said.
“It puts people on the ground that can be a part of the process, Ganim continued. "It's citizen involvement. It's a civic duty. You know other communities have done this. We’ve done this and I remember in my early years of politics, it was very common.”
Christine Bartlett Josie, the campaign manager for Ganim’s challenger John Gomes, said Bridgeport’s ballot stuffing problem can’t be solved by volunteer election day monitors.
“All that illegal activity is done way before Election Day. And I’ve said it before, it’s a culture that has been created in Bridgeport for years on how voting and absentee ballots are handled,” Bartlett Josie said.
A judge ordered the Jan. 23 redo election after video evidence presented by Gomes in his legal challenge to Ganim’s win of the September primary showed alleged absentee ballot drop box stuffing by Ganim campaign workers ahead of the election.
