A newly unsealed complaint alleges that political operatives in Bridgeport continued to travel door-to-door illegally collecting voters’ absentee ballots, even after a state Superior Court judge tossed the results of the city’s 2023 Democratic mayoral primary due to “blatant” evidence of ballot harvesting.
The new complaint, which the State Elections Enforcement Commission voted to officially investigate this week, is not the first accusation of misconduct to arise out of the electoral contest between Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim and his challenger John Gomes.
But it is the first complaint to allege that the absentee ballot abuse, which thrust Bridgeport into the national spotlight, persisted well into 2024 as Ganim and Gomes faced off in two consecutive court-ordered elections, which were closely monitored by state officials.
In the complaint, Bridgeport resident Ana Plaza alleges that a campaign worker supporting Ganim knocked on several doors in her neighborhood prior to the election in February in order to collect voters’ absentee ballots, which is against the law in Connecticut.
The campaign worker is not identified by name in the complaint, but Plaza provided photos and videos to the SEEC and The Connecticut Mirror that show a woman knocking on her front door and exiting her neighbors’ house.
The Connecticut Mirror contacted Ganim’s office for this story and provided the mayor’s spokesperson with a copy of the SEEC complaint, which includes a photo of the campaign worker.
But Ganim’s office did not respond to questions about whether anyone in his campaign knew the campaign worker in question.
The videos that the CT Mirror reviewed do not capture the campaign worker asking for anyone’s ballot, but according to the complaint, the woman told Plaza and her neighbor that she was collecting voters’ absentee ballots and mailing them back to the town clerk.
In the case of Plaza’s neighbor, Keysha Tingeling, the complaint alleges the campaign worker took her ballot before leaving her house.
Tingeling reportedly questioned the campaign worker about whether it was appropriate for someone to handle her ballot for her, but, according to the complaint, the campaign worker assured Tingeling that it was allowed.
“The woman told her it was okay as long as she didn’t put it in the absentee ballot boxes,” Plaza wrote in the complaint. “She told Keysha it was okay to take absentee ballots if she mailed them for people from regular mailboxes.”
Text messages reviewed by CT Mirror show that Tingeling and Plaza communicated about the interaction at the time in late February, just days before Ganim won the election and clinched an eighth term as the mayor of Connecticut’s largest city.
“Good morning love,” Tingeling wrote to Plaza. “I have a question about absentee voters ballot. Are people supposed to come by and pick those up? Because someone came by to get mine on Saturday.”
After discussing the situation, the two women decided to call the Bridgeport Police Department to file an official complaint about the campaign worker taking her ballot.
That phone call was also captured on video and provided to the SEEC as part of Plaza’s complaint.
In the video, Tingeling explains to police dispatchers that a Ganim campaign worker came to her house and convinced her to turn over her absentee ballot. But after being placed on hold several times, the police informed Tingeling that she should take her complaints to the Bridgeport Registrar of Voters.
Records reviewed by CT Mirror show Tingeling’s absentee ballot was ultimately delivered to the town clerk on Feb. 22, 2024 — just days after her reported interaction with the campaign worker.
Plaza told the CT Mirror she later helped Tingeling to invalidate that ballot so that she could vote in-person on election day, which was days later, on Feb. 27.
