Attorneys were back in the courtroom Thursday amid allegations of misconduct around absentee ballots in Bridgeport.
Following a Democratic primary loss by 251 votes, the campaign for mayoral hopeful John Gomes surfaced video allegedly showing a video of a city employee and Joe Ganim supporter stuffing an absentee ballot box with harvested ballots. NBC Connecticut has not independently verified the video.
Connecticut is less than a month away from the general election, but lawyers met in Bridgeport Superior Court to hash out the allegations, while William Bloss, the attorney for Gomes, attempts to get the judge to either overturn the primary election or order a new one.
Bloss has centered his case around the video and over 2,000 hours of other surveillance video from outside ballot drop boxes.
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
“The number of absentee ballots that came in without postmarks substantially exceeds the number that we see on video actually dropping absentee ballots in the drop box,” Bloss said.
Ballot harvesting is illegal under Connecticut law. Only a select few people are allowed to drop off or handle a ballot for another person, such as a designated family member, police or local election officials.
But lawyers representing the Democratic registrar of voters say there is not enough evidence to suggest wrongdoing, even with the video.
Local
“Just that video isn’t going to get the job done. You need to prove elements of the statutes being violated,” Attorney John Kennelly said outside court.
Kennelly argues because there are legal reasons someone might have a ballot in their hand, a video doesn’t offer enough evidence.
“Any person that has a ballot in their hand may be utilizing that legal means of casting a ballot,” he said.
He said people are hypersensitive to ballot irregularities in today’s political climate and want to run to the court whenever there is alleged wrongdoing.
But for him, “Smoke does not equal fire unless you can prove it."
The case picks back up Friday morning and Bloss intends on putting Mayor Ganim himself on the stand, but Kennelly calls the move nothing but courtroom theatrics.
The State Election Enforcement Commission is also conducting their own investigation into the Bridgeport Democratic primary.
