Bridgeport city councilman Alfredo Castillo allegedly convinced a woman who is not a United States citizen to illegally register to vote in 2023 and persuaded her to apply for an absentee ballot that he cast for her, according to a newly unsealed complaint.
The complaint, which was sent to Connecticut’s State Elections Enforcement Commission earlier this month, is the latest allegation of potential criminal wrongdoing to emerge out of Bridgeport’s 2023 Democratic primary — an election that resulted in widespread accusations of absentee ballot fraud and a state Superior Court judge’s decision to overturn the results of the city’s mayoral contest.
Several election enforcement cases stemming from that primary — including allegations that political operatives instructed people how to vote or illegally took possession of voters’ absentee ballots — have already been referred to state prosecutors for potential criminal charges.
But the newest complaint includes something the previous ones did not: An accusation that a Bridgeport official knowingly registered and cast a ballot for someone who was not eligible to vote.
The complaint accuses Castillo of advising Arianna Hernandez, who is a legal permanent resident in the United States, that it was OK for her to sign paperwork to become a registered voter, even though she allegedly informed him at the time that she was not a U.S. citizen.
The complaint also states that Castillo, with the assistance of Wanda Geter-Pataky, the vice chairwoman of Bridgeport’s Democratic Party, helped Hernandez apply for an absentee ballot, which the city councilman then allegedly cast in advance of the city’s 2023 Democratic primary.
During this same time period, Castillo was running for reelection for his city council seat. He and Geter-Pataky were also supporters of Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, who was locked in a competitive primary against fellow Democrat John Gomes.
“I never filled out the absentee ballot, but I signed it because Alfredo told me he would fill it out,” Hernandez wrote in the complaint, which was translated from Spanish into English by a Connecticut state trooper.
“After I signed it, Alfredo took all of the forms in an envelope,” Hernandez added. “I never went to the post office to mail any documents. He told me that I would not have any problems being a permanent resident and convinced me to sign everything.”
Both Castillo and Geter-Pataky are already facing criminal charges for election-related crimes tied to Bridgeport’s 2019 Democratic primary, including allegations they illegally possessed other voters’ absentee ballots.
Geter-Pataky could potentially face criminal charges related to the 2023 Bridgeport primary as well, after she was captured on surveillance footage allegedly placing stacks of absentee ballots into a drop box ahead of the election.
Frank Riccio, Castillo’s defense lawyer, said Thursday his client has reviewed the complaint but declined to comment. John Gulash, Geter-Pataky’s attorney, did not respond to a request for comment.
Ganim, who was reelected as mayor earlier this year after a new court-ordered primary and general election, did not respond to a request for comment that was sent to his city spokesperson.
In a phone interview with The Connecticut Mirror, Hernandez repeated the allegations she outlined in the complaint, which was compiled after she met with a state police detective.
Hernandez said she provided the detective with the information after someone assisting her with a citizenship application informed her that she should not be registered to vote and was not eligible to cast a ballot.
She recounted to the CT Mirror how Castillo and an unknown woman knocked on her door at some point in 2023 and told her they needed votes. She emphasized that she informed Castillo that she was not a U.S. citizen, but she said he promised that would not be a problem.
Records reviewed by the CT Mirror show Hernandez was officially registered to vote in February 2023 and that she withdrew the registration in November 2023. The records also indicate, however, that a ballot was cast in her name alongside more than 10,000 other Bridgeport voters during the city’s September 2023 primary.
It’s unclear what information Hernandez provided, as part of the registration process, to get cleared by local election officials to vote.
Permanent residents in Connecticut are eligible to receive social security numbers and driver’s licenses, which the state typically uses to verify new voters.
Jeannette Dardenne, the spokesperson for the Connecticut Secretary of the State’s office, said the voter registration forms used in Connecticut prominently note that a person must be a citizen to legally vote in the state. And she noted the application also lists the penalties for submitting a fraudulent voter registration form.
“The consequences for noncitizens attempting to vote are serious, including deportation, fines and imprisonment,” she said.
Hernandez, who communicates primarily in Spanish, alleged in the SEEC complaint that she did not fill out most of the voter registration form, including the box that requires the applicant to confirm they are a U.S. citizen.
She said she only signed the form. She was unsure when the rest of the document was filled out.
In Connecticut, the voter registration paperwork is available in both Spanish and English. It’s unclear which version Hernandez signed.
It is legal for permanent residents — commonly referred to as Green Card holders — to cast a ballot in local political races in some parts of the country, like Washington D.C., San Francisco and several municipalities in Vermont and Maryland. But state and federal laws generally restrict voting in other elections to U.S. citizens, including in Connecticut.
Illegally casting a vote as a noncitizen can be grounds for deportation under federal law, even if the person has legal status in the country.
It’s also a crime in Connecticut to fraudulently register another person to vote.
Hernandez said she has been a permanent resident in the United States for 20 years, and she’s spent those two decades in the country working, paying taxes and taking care of her children.
She said she made a mistake in trusting Castillo.
Documents obtained by the CT Mirror show Castillo and Geter-Pataky played at least some role in assisting Hernandez in requesting an absentee ballot.
The serial number on the absentee ballot application Hernandez signed indicates it was one of the forms that Castillo obtained from local election officials in January 2023. And Geter-Pataky signed the bottom of that document, claiming she assisted Hernandez in completing the application.
Hernandez’s complaint, however, said she doesn’t know who Geter-Pataky is.
“I do not know who is the lady Wanda Patakey that signed the form stating that she helped me,” the complaint states.
The allegation that Castillo, an elected official in Connecticut’s largest city, persuaded someone who is not a U.S. citizen to cast a ballot could stoke existing fears about noncitizens voting in elections.
Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans leaders have repeatedly claimed without evidence that noncitizens are voting in large enough numbers to swing political races.
Yet when officials in other states have investigated those complaints in the past, they found that cases of noncitizens voting are rare and incapable of swinging the results of elections, especially presidential contests that includes millions of voters.
The North Carolina Election Board looked into the issue following the 2016 election, for instance, and found that out of 4.8 million people who cast a ballot, there were 41 cases of noncitizens voting in that election statewide. All of those people were permanent residents, meaning they were in the country legally but were not eligible to vote. And there were so few of them, it was not even possible for them to swing even the lowest turnout races in the state.
Even so, the complaints that continue to pour out of Bridgeport could provide additional ammunition for Republican lawmakers around the country who want to push for new voting restrictions and additional requirements to confirm the citizenship status of voters.
Republican leaders in the U.S. House passed a bill earlier this year that would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. That bill was not taken up by the U.S. Senate, however.
Rep. Vincent Candelora, the Republican Leader in the Connecticut House of Representatives, said the complaint reiterates the need for reform in the state’s absentee voting process.
Candelora said it highlighted the need to remove candidates, campaigns and political operatives from the absentee voting process altogether, and he noted that Massachusetts limits who can request an absentee ballot for another voter to family members.
He believes adopting that type of system in Connecticut would protect vulnerable voters from potentially being manipulated by candidates and campaigns, as the complaints out of Bridgeport have alleged.
“I think we have to look at a process that doesn’t allow third parties to prey upon people, whether they are legally able to vote or not,” Candelora said. “There are vulnerable populations in Connecticut who get preyed upon in order to try to take their vote away.”
The court decision that overturned the results of Bridgeport’s 2023 mayoral primary placed the city in the national spotlight, but allegations of election-related fraud in the city are not new. Bridgeport has a long history of election scandals, particularly when it comes to absentee voting.
A former Bridgeport city councilman Michael DeFilippo, for instance, pleaded guilty earlier this year after prosecutors accused him of falsifying voter registration documents and absentee ballot applications for tenants at several apartments that he owned during his reelection bid in 2017 and 2018.
The complaint against Castillo will now be investigated by staff with the State Elections Enforcement Commission and it will be up to that body to decide if Castillo or Geter-Pataky should be referred for potential criminal charges again.
Andrew Brown, Renata Daou and Shahrzad Rasekh are reporters for The Connecticut Mirror (https://ctmirror.org). Copyright 2024 © The Connecticut Mirror.
