Earlier this year, Margaret Joyce was charged alongside four other individuals with abusing Bridgeport’s absentee ballot system during the city’s 2023 Democratic mayoral primary.

And this week, the 46-year-old was cited again by state elections enforcement officials — this time for violating the state’s absentee ballot laws during a 2024 re-do election between Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim and his Democratic challenger John Gomes.

According to State Elections Enforcement Commission staff, Joyce told state investigators that she was compensated during those 2024 elections for the sole purpose of soliciting absentee votes — which is a violation of state law. They said she also admitted to taking possession of at least one voters’ absentee ballot ahead of those contests, which is a felony in Connecticut.

But Joyce, who is now homeless and living out of her car, is unlikely to face any consequence for the actions she took during the 2024 elections, which were held after Ganim’s victory in 2023 was overturned in court due to widespread allegations of absentee ballot fraud.

The SEEC staff recommended the commission settle the case against Joyce — who is already facing nine felony charges tied to the 2023 election — and issue Joyce a fine of $1,000 for what they described as an “egregious” violation of state law.

But the SEEC also acknowledged that Joyce was unlikely to pay that fine because of her financial circumstances. They said she will qualify to have the fine waived because she is considered indigent.

Joyce previously told investigators with the Connecticut Chief State’s Attorney’s office that she worked for Ganim in 2023 and 2024 and was paid by his campaign.

Joyce could not be reached for comment for this story. Her attorney, Robert Koetsch, did not return a call to his office.

Ganim did not respond to an email that was sent to a spokesperson for his office.

Members of the SEEC ultimately voted to settle the case against Joyce. But before they did, two of the commissioners openly questioned what type of precedent they were setting, and what message it might send to candidates who are running for political office in the future.

Stephen Penny, chairman of the SEEC, specifically asked what would prevent Ganim or any other political candidate from hiring low-income individuals to repeatedly violate the state’s absentee ballot laws.

“What is there in this process that would discourage candidates for the office of the mayor for the city of Bridgeport from putting indigent people in this position, over and over and over again?” Penny asked.

Gregory Piecuch, another commissioner, made a similar point and suggested that the SEEC needs to start investigating the candidates and treasurers paying campaign workers who mishandle absentee ballots.

“What we have seen, particularly since COVID, is a proliferation in the use of absentee ballots by campaigns,” Piecuch said. “The use of absentee ballots has grown, and so too has the ability of folks to be acting in concert and perhaps using the indigent as a way to escape liability.” 

“That is something that we are going to have to take a much closer look at,” Piecuch added.

William Smith, an attorney for the SEEC, explained to the commission that the case against Joyce, which included video footage of her allegedly picking up an absentee ballot at a voter’s house, was one of more than 30 investigations stemming from the election contests between Ganim and Gomes in 2023 and 2024.

According to Smith, Michael Brandi, the SEEC’s former director, made the decision to focus those cases on the individual campaign operatives who were allegedly mishandling absentee ballots. Smith said that is why Ganim and his campaign team were not investigated as part of the complaint that was filed against Joyce.

Brandi, who retired earlier this year, did not respond to a phone call for this story.

“Based on the former executive director’s strategy, we were focused on the participants who were actually on the ground, knocking on doors,” Smith told the commission.

It’s not just members of the SEEC, however, who are starting to question why it is largely campaign operatives who are being hit with fines and criminal charges in Bridgeport.

People involved in election cases in Bridgeport and attorneys for some of the defendants who are currently facing charges are also critical of the fact that campaign directors and political candidates who benefited from the alleged absentee ballot fraud are not being investigated and criminally prosecuted.

Ken Krayeske, who is representing Nilsa Heredia, another low-level campaign worker who was charged with mishandling absentee ballots during Ganim’s 2019 election, said the string of alleged election fraud that has taken place in Bridgeport is unlikely to end if the people at the top are not held accountable.

“Why isn’t the person who benefited from these schemes in 2019 and 2023 a defendant here?” Krayeske said, referring to Ganim. “It is a crime to solicit someone to go out and take absentee ballots.”

Krayeske said it will be deeply unfair if people like Joyce and his client, who lives in P.T. Barnum Apartments, a public housing facility, are convicted of felonies, while the individuals who hired them and paid them are left unscathed. He said he would consider that selective prosecution.

Prerna Rao, an attorney who led a civil lawsuit challenging Ganim’s primary victory in 2019, said the trial in that case highlighted the instructions that lower-level campaign operatives receive during many Bridgeport elections.

Rao, who grew up in Bridgeport, said there is clearly evidence in some of the ongoing criminal cases that the people accused of illegally collecting absentee ballots were also being paid by campaigns.

“I don’t think that justice will be done until the folks involved in orchestrating this process and giving people directives and issuing checks and payments also face consequences,” Rao said.