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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Democrats Don't Want Fair Elections | Catherine Engelbrecht | Rick & Bubba University | Ep 205
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Democrats Don't Want Fair Elections | Catherine Engelbrecht | Rick & Bubba University | Ep 205

Former Dem congressman pleads guilty to orchestrating ballot-stuffing scheme to benefit Democrats



Disgraced former Democratic congressman Michael "Ozzie" Myers has pleaded guilty to ballot stuffing in multiple elections.

Myers was infamously expelled from the House of Representatives — the only member of Congress to be expelled in the 20th century — in 1980 after being caught up in a bribery scandal. He was later convicted of bribery and conspiracy, and he was sentenced to three years in prison.

Michael Myers after he was expelled from Congress in October 1980 (Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images)

What are the details?

The Justice Department announced on Monday Myers, now 79 years old, pleaded to conspiracy to deprive voters of civil rights, bribery, obstruction of justice, falsification of voting records, and conspiring to illegally vote in a federal election.

According to the DOJ, Myers "orchestrat[ed] schemes to fraudulently stuff the ballot boxes for specific Democratic candidates in the 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 Pennsylvania elections."

An unsealed indictment against Myers explains

As a political consultant, defendant MYERS held himself out as an effective and successful political operative capable of ensuring his clients' electoral success. Defendant MYERS exercised influence and control in Philadelphia's 39th Ward by distributing cash payments and supporting family, friends, and allies for elective office in the 39th Ward, and installing Ward Leaders, Judges of Elections, and Democratic State Committee Persons.

Through the scheme described below, MYERS advanced his political and financial interests through fraudulent and corrupt means by engaging in a "ballot stuffing" scheme that enabled him to take credit for the electoral success of his Philadelphia based clients and preferred candidates, secure his standing in local party politics that enabled him to control and influence the 39th Ward, and influence the distribution of local patronage jobs.

In a particularly brutal reminder of his past, FBI special agent in charge Jacqueline Maguire said Myers' latest crime spree is indicative of who he is as a person.

"One thing you can say about Ozzie Myers: his values have long been out of whack," she said. "Decades ago, he valued a fake sheikh’s bribes more than the ethical obligations of his elected federal office.

"This time around, he valued his clients’ money and his own whims more than the integrity of multiple elections and the will of Philadelphia voters," Maguire added. "Free and fair elections are critical to the health of our democracy, which is why protecting the legitimacy of the electoral process at every level is such a priority for the FBI.”

Georgia election officials refute claims made about viral video with 'suitcases' of ballots



The Georgia secretary of state's office on Friday reportedly said they've investigated claims of voter fraud made in a viral video shared by the Trump campaign and others, and found that the claims were not true.

According to Fox News, senior officials in Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office have investigated and debunked claims that Fulton County election officials illegally counted ballots without poll watcher supervision.

The Trump campaign and various political commentators and media figures on Thursday claimed that video footage taken by security cameras showed "suitcases filled with ballots" being counted at State Farm Arena in Atlanta on Nov. 3 after election supervisors were told to leave the room. The video was first presented as part of testimony from the Trump campaign at an election integrity hearing held by state lawmakers. Those that testified were not asked to swear under oath.

Video footage from Georgia shows suitcases filled with ballots pulled from under a table AFTER supervisors told pol… https://t.co/kgJcXSaOpr
— Trump War Room (@Trump War Room)1607056632.0

The narrator of the video is Jackie Pick, an attorney who said she was not acting as a lawyer for the Trump campaign but rather presented testimony as a volunteer. She claimed that the video showed "four people" staying behind to count "suitcases" of ballots after "Republican observers and the press" were told to leave. Trump's legal team asserts that something fraudulent or nefarious may have occurred while these ballots were allegedly counted without supervision and at the very least complains that what occurred in the video was against protocols established by Georgia state election law.

An official from Raffensperger's office told Fox News an investigation showed these claims were unfounded. According to the official, Fulton County election officials had a designated observer watching the votes being counted the entire time. Additionally, the official said there was nothing suspicious about the "suitcases" of ballots that were pulled out from beneath a table and that those cases on video are the cases ballots were supposed to be kept in.

TheBlaze has contacted the Georgia secretary of state's office requesting comment on Fox News' reporting.

Other Georgia officials have stated on the record that the claims made about the video were false.

Gabriel Sterling, a Republican in charge of implementing Georgia's voting system, told Lead Stories that nothing in the video appeared "bizarre or odd" and that what is seen looks like normal election procedure. He disputed allegations that Republican poll watchers were told vote counting had ended and they were to go home.

He explained that the election workers who went home are known as "cutters," because their job was to open absentee ballot envelopes and verify ballots for eventual scanning and counting. He said they were dismissed sometime after 10 p.m. on Nov. 3, as shown in the video, because their work for the evening had been finished. The four workers who remained behind were responsible for scanning the ballots.

"If you look at the video tape, the work you see is the work you would expect, which is you take the sealed suitcase looking things in, you place the ballots on the scanner in manageable batches and you scan them," Sterling told Lead Stories.

The chief investigator for the Georgia secretary of state, Frances Watson, also spoke to Lead Stories and he said that the "suitcases" seen in the video were standard containers.

"There wasn't a bin that had ballots in it under that table," Watson explained. "It was an empty bin and the ballots from it were actually out on the table when the media were still there, and then it was placed back into the box when the media were still there and placed next to the table."

Watson said that there was never an announcement made to the media or to partisan election observers about the counting being done for the night or telling them to go home.

TheBlaze has previously reported that Fulton County officials explicitly denied that anyone from the Trump campaign was ever told vote counting was finished for the night. Multiple requests made to the Trump campaign for response were unanswered.

Additionally, Lead Stories obtained comments from the state election board monitor who was present for the vote counting on Nov. 3. He explained that at no point was the ballot counting unobserved by elections officials, as Pick and others have claimed:

A state election board monitor, who asked for his name not to be used due to safety concerns, told Lead Stories on the phone on December 3, 2020, that he was present at the vote counting location beginning at 11:52 p.m., after leaving briefly at earlier in the evening. He then stayed until about 12:45 a.m., when the work that night was completed.

The deputy chief investigator for the secretary of state's office was present beginning at 12:15 a.m. November 4, he said.

Georgia officials are responding to other "concerning" allegations made during Thursday's testimony.

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday called on the secretary of state to conduct a signature audit of absentee ballots to verify the election results.

However, a signature audit presents difficulties because when absentee votes are first counted on Election Day, they are separated from the signed envelopes they came in, WXIA-TV explained. To preserve the secrecy of ballots, ballots are not signed by voters, just the envelopes they are delivered in. So there is no way to retroactively match votes that have already been counted with the signatures of the voters who sent those ballots.

The Georgia secretary of state's office has not yet responded to the governor's request.