State election enforcement officials referred another complaint involving Bridgeport’s 2023 Democratic primary for potential criminal prosecution on Wednesday.
This time, the case involves allies of Democratic candidate John Gomes, who failed to unseat Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim after four hotly contested elections.
The complaint, which was filed by Bridgeport’s city council chairwoman Aidee Nieves, accuses Josue Jorge, Maria Hernandez and Maria Agueda of illegally handling other voters’ absentee ballots during Bridgeport’s 2023 Democratic primary and delivering those ballots to several drop boxes located throughout the city.
Agueda was a supporter of Gomes’ campaign during that primary, which ended in a lawsuit and widespread allegations of absentee ballot fraud. Meanwhile, Hernandez and Jorge both ran against Nieves for the city council seats in Bridgeport’s 137th district.
None of them responded to phone calls for this story.
Nieves’ complaint, which was sent to the State Elections Enforcement Commission in December 2023, came in response to the mountain of allegations that were filed by Gomes’ campaign after Ganim narrowly won the September 2023 primary based on the strength of absentee votes.
Gomes went on to successfully challenge the results of that election in court by relying on video surveillance footage that showed several of Ganim’s political supporters depositing large numbers of absentee ballots into the four drop boxes that were scattered throughout the city.
Gomes’ campaign then used that same video footage, as well as statements from several Bridgeport voters, to file dozens of SEEC complaints against Ganim’s allies, including Nieves, other Bridgeport city council members and the vice chairwoman of Bridgeport’s local Democratic Party.
It’s illegal for someone to handle another voter’s absentee ballot in Connecticut, unless that person is a family member, personal caregiver or legal “designee.”
In her complaint, Nieves alleged that Gomes’ supporters took part in some of the same criminal activities they were accusing Ganim’s supporters of committing.
“I feel the need to raise this with the Commission because the Gomes campaign has gone to great lengths to throw allegations out at other people, while refusing to own up to and confront blatant absentee ballot abuse by their own agents,” Nieves wrote in the complaint.
Nieves, who did not respond to a phone call for this story, told SEEC investigators that Gomes’ team wanted to “pretend” to have no involvement in such activities.
During several days of testimony in court, Gomes legal team shared the video footage of Ganim’s political supporters dropping absentee ballots into the drop boxes ahead of the election. And they questioned Ganim, who was placed under oath, about those videos.
But Nieves complained that Gomes’ attorneys chose not to highlight the video footage of Hernandez and Agueda, who were allegedly captured on the same city surveillance cameras repeatedly depositing absentee ballots at the same locations.
Nieves sent the footage of Hernandez and Agueda to the SEEC along with her complaint.
“Agueda’s visits to the drop box were especially frequent (with at least 11 known visits to the boxes) and in one video is seen with so many ballots in her hand that she drops a bunch of them on the ground,” Nieves told the SEEC.
Nieves’ complaint is not the first SEEC case to be referred to Connecticut’s Chief State’s Attorney for potential criminal prosecution, and it is unlikely to be the last.
Gomes’ lawsuit and the 2023 primary in Bridgeport has set off what is considered to be the largest criminal investigation into election fraud in decades.
Some of the complaints that were filed in the aftermath of that election have been dismissed due to insufficient evidence or a lack of cooperation from witnesses.
But a growing number of cases have been referred to the state attorneys for further investigation and potential prosecution. That includes many of the allegations that were leveled against Nieves and other Ganim supporters.
The investigation into alleged ballot harvesting and voter fraud in Bridgeport is so massive that the SEEC dedicated four of its five investigators to the effort. And in recent months, more complaints have continued to pour in, including allegations that a Democratic city councilman illegally registered a noncitizen to vote and cast a ballot for that woman during the 2023 primary.
Connecticut’s chief state’s attorney has filed criminal charges against four Bridgeport residents earlier this year, but those charges stem from the city’s 2019 Democratic primary.
To this point, nobody has faced a criminal complaint regarding the 2023 election.
