BRIDGEPORT — A former city worker has pleaded guilty to two of his charges stemming from a 2023 absentee ballot case, court records show.
Robert Anderson pleaded guilty in state Superior Court in Bridgeport to illegal possession of an absentee ballot and misrepresenting eligibility requirements for an absentee ballot as a part of a plea bargain, the records show.
The terms of Anderson’s agreement with state prosecutors was not clear as of Friday afternoon.
Anderson was a municipal employee who told investigators he was hired by Mayor Joseph Ganim’s campaign for the 2023 Democratic primary, according to his arrest warrant application. Anderson told authorities that he circulated absentee ballot applications, and, when asked whether he explained the eligibility requirements to each applicant, he said that “he was not told the regulations governing the distribution of absentee ballot applications,” the warrant states.
But after being confronted with security video footage of him depositing multiple ballots into a drop box outside of the Margaret E. Morton Government Center at 999 Broad St., Anderson allegedly admitted he deposited “maybe ten, if that” absentee ballots within the city’s four drop-off containers during the 2023 mayoral primary.
Anderson is one of several people charged in connection with absentee ballot-related offenses in the city’s 2023 Democratic mayoral primary.
Bridgeport City Council member Alfredo Castillo and former Democratic Town Committee Chair Wanda Geter-Pataky — who are each also facing charges in connection with the 2019 primary — have pending cases.
Maria Pereira, a member of the City Council, was charged in connection with the city’s 2023 mayoral primary, also has cases pending. And Jazmarie Melendez, a former member of the council charged in the case, received a probationary program and is expected to have the charges against her dismissed in August.
Judicial records indicate that Margaret Joyce opted to take her case to trial.
Castillo, Pereira, Geter-Pataky and Joyce have pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to judicial records.
Silvia Ramos and Nilsa Heredia, who each pleaded guilty to absentee ballot charges, were given two-year suspended jail sentences. Josephine Edmonds, who worked for state Sen. Marilyn Moore’s campaign challenging Ganim in 2019, was sentenced to a three-year suspended sentence and three years of probation in September.