Democrats embroiled in election scandal in Connecticut city turn themselves in



Two Democrat city councilpersons and one influential Democrat operative in Bridgeport, Connecticut, have turned themselves in to police in connection with alleged election tampering.

On Friday, Councilmembers Alfredo Castillo and Maria Pereira as well as Wanda Geter-Pataky, the Bridgeport Democratic Party vice chair, walked into a Connecticut State Police station after warrants were issued for their arrests, according to videos shared by John Craven of News 12 Connecticut.

Accusations have swirled around the trio for years, as Blaze News has chronicled at length.

In 2019, Castillo and Geter-Pataky allegedly mishandled absentee ballots during the contentious Democratic mayoral primary. At the time, both worked for the campaign of longtime Mayor Joe Ganim, whose decades in office was interrupted by a seven-year stint in prison for political corruption.

A former resident of Castillo's district alleged back then that Castillo picked up an absentee ballot from his home before he ever had a chance to fill it out. Castillo initially denied knowing the resident or working to procure him an absentee ballot. He then later reportedly admitted that his handwriting appears on portions of the ballot but continued to say he never took possession of it.

"Not me. I didn’t take no absentee ballot. I don’t do that," Castillo said, according to the CT Mirror. "I don’t touch none of that stuff. ... He didn’t give me no ballot."

Geter-Pataky also allegedly filled out an absentee ballot without proper authorization during the 2019 mayoral primary election. She was likewise accused of tampering with a witness.

Additionally, Geter-Pataky is at the center of controversy in the 2023 Democratic mayoral primary, once again involving Mayor Joe Ganim. An ardent Ganim supporter and then an employee of City Hall, she appeared to be caught on surveillance video stuffing a City Hall drop box with stacks of absentee ballots just days before the election.

The surveillance footage was so alarming that a judge later tossed the results and demanded a primary do-over, though Ganim prevailed over his opponents in the second primary as well as the general election. As in 2019, the results of the 2023 Democratic mayoral primary swung to Ganim almost exclusively on absentee ballot dumps on election night.

The CT Post reported that the warrants issued recently for Geter-Pataky and Castillo are related to the 2023 election. However, it is unclear what Castillo has been accused of doing in that case.

'Despite commonsense voter integrity measures that could be implemented, Connecticut state Democrats tells us corruption is not a problem.'

Pereira is also accused of meddling with absentee ballots in 2023. According to a resident of a low-income apartment complex that was heavily targeted during the primary campaign season, "Maria Pereira came to my home and took the ballot. She indicated that she would mail it for me. She told me what line to vote for and I sign[ed] it."

"For 4 years Maria Pereira has taken my voting ballot and stuffed it in her bag to drop it off," another resident wrote in a letter. "Maria likes to bribe the seniors, bringing them Christmas presents ... buying them food, getting them little things."

Screenshots of handwritten notes scribbled on what appear to be absentee ballot materials and shared on X by Craven of News 12 Connecticut indicate that Pereira — or someone pretending to be Pereira — attempted to influence the way people completed their ballots.

"You get to vote for whoever you want, just like I get to choose which residen[ts] I help or don’t help," Pereira allegedly wrote on one person's absentee ballot instructions.

On another set of instructions, she allegedly wrote, "No one will ever know!" followed by a heart and her name.

As she exited the CSP station on Friday, Pereira made a brief statement: "I’m going to win. I’ve defeated the Bridgeport PD four times with zero convictions. I’m going to win this, too."

Pereira, Castillo, and Geter-Pataky are all scheduled to appear in court on March 6.

"I've been told there's an active warrant, and they've provided the option of voluntary surrender," said Frank Riccio, Castillo's attorney.

"It's my understanding that yes, she is surrendering on a warrant today. Anything else it would be inappropriate for me to comment on at this point," added Geter-Pataky's attorney, Robert Gulash.

Leaders of the Yankee Institute, a government watchdog organization in Connecticut, indicated to Blaze News that these cases demonstrate the need for better guardrails on the election system.

"It is impossible for Connecticut’s voters to have confidence in the outcomes of the elections here without meaningful voter integrity reforms — including voter ID requirements," Yankee Institute President Carol Platt Liebau said in a statement to Blaze News.

"Our state is facing a crisis of competence in our voting system where the public no longer trusts the ballot boxes that can be easily stuffed and absentee ballots that are being found to be manipulated," said Yankee Institute fellow Frank Ricci, who also serves as a Connecticut fire chief.

"Despite commonsense voter integrity measures that could be implemented, Connecticut state Democrats tells us corruption is not a problem — the arrests and video tapes tells us the real story."

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Dem leaders allegedly helped noncitizen vote as fallout from shady mayoral primary in Connecticut continues



Two Democrat officials in Bridgeport, Connecticut, have been accused of helping a permanent resident cast a vote even after the woman reportedly mentioned she was not a U.S. citizen.

Alfredo Castillo, a Democrat city councilman, and Wanda Geter-Pataky — the vice chairwoman of the Bridgeport Democratic Party and a close associate of Mayor Joe Ganim (D), who spent seven years behind bars for political corruption — allegedly engaged in election fraud in both 2019 and 2023.

Both Castillo and Geter-Pataky — as well as two other defendants — have already been charged in connection with allegedly mishandling absentee ballots in 2019, as Blaze News previously reported.

'American elections are for American citizens — who cast their votes free of corruption or coercion.'

Now, according to the CT Mirror, both have been accused of helping Arianna Hernandez, a Bridgeport permanent resident who communicates mainly in Spanish even though she has lived in the U.S. legally for 20 years, cast an absentee ballot in the Bridgeport mayoral primary in September 2023.

Earlier this month, Hernandez averred in an affidavit that Castillo and an unidentified woman stopped by her home in 2023 and persuaded her to sign a voter registration application.

"I did not fill out the form," Hernandez wrote in the complaint, according to an official English translation. "I do not know when it was filled."

Hernandez further insisted that she "did not indicate on the form" that she was a U.S. citizen. In fact, she told the CT Mirror that she specifically mentioned to Castillo that she is not a citizen.

"He told me that I would not have a problem if I voted as a permanent resident," she said in Spanish on the affidavit.

According to Hernandez, Castillo later arrived at her home again, this time with an absentee ballot application and ballot that she signed but did not fill out.

"Alfredo returned ... with another form which indicated that I could not vote in person because I was sick. That is not true," Hernandez wrote. "I never filled out the absentee ballot, but I signed it because Alfredo told me he would fill it out."

"After I signed the absentee ballot application, Mr. Alfredo Castillo gave me the absentee ballot to sign," she continued. "After I signed it, Alfredo took all of the forms in an envelope."

"He told me that I would not have any problems being a permanent resident and convinced me to sign everything."

The serial number on Hernandez's absentee ballot application indicates that it was among the forms Castillo collected in January 2023, the CT Mirror reported.

The affidavit said that Geter-Pataky signed at least one of Hernandez's ballot forms, claiming to have assisted her in filling it out.

Records show that Hernandez registered to vote in February 2023 and withdrew the registration nine months later but still managed to cast a ballot in September 2023, when the Bridgeport mayoral primary election was held. She claimed she learned of her error when attempting to apply for citizenship.

Hernandez's complaint has since been submitted to the Connecticut State Elections Enforcement Commission.

"The consequences for noncitizens attempting to vote are serious, including deportation, fines and imprisonment," said Jeannette Dardenne, a spokesperson for the Connecticut Secretary of State's Office.

Frank Riccio, an attorney representing Castillo, declined the CT Mirror's request for comment while John Gulash, Geter-Pataky’s attorney, and Mayor Ganim did not respond to a request for comment.

In a statement to Blaze News, Carol Platt Liebau — president of the Yankee Institute, a political watchdog group in Connecticut — lamented that citizens voting in good faith are the ultimate victims of any voter fraud scheme, which she called the greatest "threat to democracy."

"Every vote that is cast illegally cancels out the ballot of a legal voter — and often, these days, that means the ballot of a new citizen who waited in line and went to great trouble and expense to become an American citizen in accordance with the law," she said.

"Democracy doesn’t fall in one blow — it’s chipped away with each act of dishonesty that undermines the integrity of our elections. American elections are for American citizens — who cast their votes free of corruption or coercion," Yankee Institute fellow Frank Ricci, a Connecticut fire chief, added in a statement to Blaze News.

Geter-Pataky has also been accused of stuffing the ballot box just before the contentious 2023 Democratic mayoral primary after surveillance cameras at city hall appeared to show her deposit stacks of ballots in the early-morning hours of September 5, 2023.

That primary election was so rife with irregularities that a judge later tossed the results and demanded a new primary be held. Ganim prevailed in both the general election and the primary re-do over challenger John Gomes.

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