“Unprecedented Action” Taken in Bridgeport Ballot Fraud Case

by Sharon Rondeau

(Nov. 21, 2023) — In a press release issued Tuesday morning, Connecticut-based Fight Voter Fraud (VFV), Inc., a 501(c)(4) organization founded in 2018 by Linda Synkowicz, filed two criminal complaints in Connecticut Superior Court on behalf of three electors stemming from allegations of fraud in a September 12, 2023 Democratic primary in the City of Bridgeport.

In the primary, multi-term incumbent Mayor Joseph P. Ganim was challenged by a former employee, John Gomes, for the position. Following the primary, Ganim was pronounced the winner by 251 votes, with Gomes crying foul as a result of video footage his campaign discovered appearing to show a woman said to be a Ganim ally and Democratic city operative depositing what the Connecticut Mirror described as “stacks of papers” into a city-designated drop box prior to the primary election.

Ganim’s announced victory was achieved by way of absentee ballots, the Mirror reported. Ganim served as Bridgeport mayor from 1991 to 2003 and was subsequently convicted of “racketeering” and “extortion,” spending seven years in federal prison.

Allegations of ballot fraud in Bridgeport are not new. In 2019, three individuals associated with Ganim’s campaign, one of whom is reportedly depicted in the video Gomes released, were accused of ballot fraud which the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC) failed to fully pursue. On August 31, 2023, CT Insider reported:

The State Election Enforcement Commission, the regulatory agency that launched the initial investigation after a series of articles that cited voters who said they were steered toward voting for Ganim via mail-in absentee ballots, recently referred the case to Chief State’s Attorney Patrick Griffin.

The SEEC investigators were hampered by the COVID pandemic, which hit the state in March of 2020 and delayed some in-person interviews. In June, the commission voted unanimously to authorize staff lawyers to refer “evidence of possible criminal violations undertaken.”

At the time, an “investigation” was “pending,” an SEEC Division of Criminal Justice spokeswoman told the outlet.

Seeking and gaining re-election in 2015, Ganim ran again in 2019. In that primary, Ganim reportedly won by 270 votes, a finding taken to court by challenger state Sen. Marilyn Moore but ruled against by Judge Barry Stevens.

On September 19, 2023 Gomes filed a lawsuit challenging the primary results, with Judge William Clark ruling November 1 that a new primary should take place.

In his ruling, Clark stated the essence of Gomes’s complaint, invoking six aspects of C.G.S. 9-140 pertaining to absentee ballots, and specifically, subsection “b” and its subsections as well as an allegation that “On information and belief voters were promised benefits in exchange for their votes” (p. 3).

Case documents can be accessed here.

On November 7, municipal general elections in Connecticut took place. Despite that, last week Clark set a new Democratic mayoral primary date of January 23, 2024 after Ganim, Gomes, and Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas agreed to it.

FVF’s press release on the filing of the criminal complaints begins:

On behalf of quote “We the People,” Fight Voter Fraud, Inc. is seeking justice against long-standing voter fraud and corruption in the Park City. One of the alleged perpetrators of voter fraud in Bridgeport is Wanda Geter-Pataki, who, after a four-year investigation by the State Election Enforcement Committee (SEEC) [sic], was referred for criminal investigation for her role in the 2019 Democratic Primary. The SEEC confirmed the referral in June 2023 to the Office of the Chief States Attorney…

Fight Voter Fraud has taken unprecedented action to uphold the law and bring accountability and trust to Bridgeport’s elections. Utilizing an obscure but powerful state statute that allows “We the People” to force action, three Bridgeport citizens reviewed and signed the affidavits after examining the evidence presented in court records. These three elector’s [sic] signatures push forward the arrest warrants for Wanda Geter-Pataki and Eneida Martinez to be signed by the Superior Court Judge, according to Connecticut State Statute: 9-368.

Both Fox 61, located in the Hartford area, and the national Fox News Channel have provided coverage of the story, among other outlets. On November 8, FNC “Primetime” host Jesse Watters interviewed former Republican candidate for Secretary of the State and former FVF board chairman Dominic Rapini about the evolving events surrounding Bridgeport’s elections and dispatched his assistant to locate “Wanda” to ask some questions.

Geter-Pataki remained silent while walking into her residence with what appeared to be two large shopping bags.

The criminal complaints against Wanda Geter-Pataki and Eneida Martinez, sworn to by three Bridgeport electors (voters), cite C.G.S. 9-368, passed in 1953, which states, as reiterated on page 1 of FVF’s complaints:

Upon the written complaint of any three electors of a town in which a violation of any law relating to elections has occurred to any judge of the superior court for the judicial district within which the offense has been committed, supported by oath or affirmation that the complainants have good reason to believe and do believe that the allegations therein contained are true and can be proved, such judge shall issue a warrant for the arrest of the accused.

Based on court documentation and testimony from Gomes’s lawsuit, the three electors have accused Geter-Pataki of 17 violations of Connecticut election law and Martinez of five and call for the court to issue an arrest warrant for each.

Speaking with Synkowicz Tuesday afternoon, she told The Post & Email, “The law I found is so obscure but absolutely covers this. It says that if three electors in a town find that another elector (voter) has violated any election law, they can then go directly to a superior court judge who shall issue the arrest warrant. There’s no wiggle room there. It is so strong it is unbelievable. What we’re doing has never been done before other than once in the 1950s.”

We also contacted Cameron Atkinson, FVF’s attorney in the matter, who told us:

Elections are the backbone of our state and country. When someone commits election fraud, they cheat all of us. At that point, it is no longer a Democrat or Republican issue. It is a Connecticut issue. The City of Bridgeport and the state of Connecticut seem more interested in targeting the people who exposed the shocking election fraud than prosecuting the people responsible for committing it. The world is now watching. We call on the Connecticut General Assembly to pass a bill appointing a special prosecutor to investigate and prosecute everyone involved in the fraud committed on the people of Bridgeport.