Two Democratic Party officials in Bridgeport, Conn., are accused of helping a woman vote as a permanent resident even after she reportedly said she was not a U.S. citizen.
Democratic City Councilman Alfredo Castillo and Wanda Getter-Pataky, vice chair of the Bridgeport Democratic Party and a close ally of Democratic Mayor Joe Ganim, who was imprisoned for seven years for political corruption, accused him of election fraud in 2016. It is suspected that he was involved in Both 2019 and 2023.
As Blaze News previously reported, Castillo and Getter-Pataky, as well as two other defendants, have already been indicted for allegedly rigging absentee ballots in 2019.
“American elections are for Americans to vote without corruption or coercion.”
Well, according to CT mirrorAriana Hernandez, a permanent resident of Bridgeport who primarily communicates in Spanish despite having lived in the U.S. legally for 20 years, is running in the September 2023 Bridgeport mayoral primary. He is accused of helping people vote absentee.
Earlier this month, Hernandez said: affidavit Castillo and an unidentified woman allegedly 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 the official English translation. “I don't know when it was filled.”
Hernandez also claimed that he “did not indicate on the form” that he was a U.S. citizen. In fact, she told CT Mirror that she specifically told Castillo that she was not a citizen.
“He said it was OK for me to vote as a permanent resident,” she said in Spanish in the affidavit.
Hernandez said Castillo later arrived at her home again with an absentee ballot application and a signed but unfilled ballot.
“Mr. Alfredo returned with another form stating that he was too ill to vote in person. That is not true,” Hernandez wrote. “I have never filled out an absentee ballot, but Alfredo said he would, so I signed it.”
“After I signed the absentee ballot application, Mr. Alfredo Castillo gave me an absentee ballot to sign,” she continued. “After I signed, Alfredo took all the documents in an envelope.''
“He told me I had no problem becoming a permanent resident and convinced me to sign everything.”
The serial number on Hernandez's absentee ballot application indicates it is one of the forms Castillo collected in January 2023, CT Mirror reported.
Geter-Pataky signed at least one of Hernandez's ballots and claimed to have helped Hernandez fill out the ballot, according to the affidavit.
Records show Mr. Hernandez registered to vote in February 2023, unregistered nine months later, but successfully voted in September 2023, during the Bridgeport mayoral primary. She claimed that she realized her mistake when she tried to apply for citizenship.
Hernandez's complaint was subsequently filed with the Connecticut State Board of Elections.
“The consequences for noncitizens attempting to vote are severe, including deportation, fines, and imprisonment,” said Janet Dardenne, a spokeswoman for the Connecticut Secretary of State's office.
Frank Riccio, an attorney representing Castillo, declined CT Mirror's request for comment, while Guetter Pataky's attorney, John Glash, and Mayor Ganim did not respond to requests for comment.
In a statement to Blaze News, Carol Pratt Liebau, president of the Yankee Institute, a political watchdog group in Connecticut, lamented that the ultimate victims of any voter fraud scheme are honest voters. He called this the “greatest threat to democracy.” . ”
“Every vote cast illegally invalidates the vote of a legal voter. And these days, in many cases, it's a matter of waiting in line and going to great effort and expense to become an American citizen. “It means the vote of new citizens who have become American citizens pursuant to the law because of the law,” she said.
Yankee Institute Fellow Frank Rich said, “Democracy doesn't fall in one blow; it's chipped away with every fraud that undermines the integrity of an election. “This is for the American people who have done so.” The Connecticut fire chief added in a statement to Blaze News.
Getter Pataky also spoke out about the controversial 2023 Democratic mayoral race after it was revealed that a stack of ballots she was keeping was captured on surveillance cameras at City Hall in the early morning hours of September 5, 2023. He is also suspected of stuffing ballot boxes just before the primary election.
That primary election was so fraudulent that a judge later threw out the results and called for a new primary election. Ganim defeated challenger John Gomez in both the general election and a rerun primary.
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