Sen. Sampson, Senate GOP Leader Harding on Bridgeport Do-over Election: ‘An embarrassing scandal’

In advance of Tuesday’s do-over election in Bridgeport, Senate Republican Leader Stephen Harding and Sen. Rob Sampson, Ranking Senator on the Government Administration and Elections Committee issued the following statement:

“It’s been an embarrassing scandal. Repeated ballot-stuffing was caught on tape.  The whole world saw it on video. People in Bridgeport were disenfranchised. They now have election fatigue, and they feel their vote doesn’t count.  Yet, majority Democrats at the State Capitol have shown zero urgency to strengthen election security policies in Connecticut. Democrats, who control all levers of political power in this state, repeatedly voted against several Republican measures aimed at addressing known voting abuses and closing corruption loopholes in Connecticut’s election system. They are on record as essentially saying, ‘the current system works for us, so why make reforms?’”

Democrats voted as a bloc against Senate Republican amendments which sought to:

• Eliminate absentee ballot drop boxes
• Suspend the use of drop boxes until the Bridgeport’s elections monitor issues a report
• Prevent the mailing of unsolicited absentee ballots
• Waiving fees for driver’s licenses and photo IDs and requiring a copy in the AB envelope
• Impose a mandatory one-year prison sentence for those found guilty of absentee ballot fraud