Mallozzi seeks settlement of voter fraud case
STAMFORD — John Mallozzi, the former city Democratic Party boss charged with absentee ballot fraud, was in court Thursday to discuss a possible resolution of the case.
Mallozzi’s attorney, Stephan Seeger of Stamford, said the pretrial conference between the parties and a judge could lead to an agreement. The state has charged Mallozzi with 14 counts each of filing false statements and seconddegree forgery.
“This gives the parties a chance to explain their positions and let a judge hear them. Sometimes the court has good ideas and it helps make a resolution possible,” Seeger said. “We’re hoping for a resolution.”
Mallozzi was arrested in January after a 20month investigation. The state’s attorney charges that Mallozzi forged 14 absentee ballots in the 2015 municipal election, in which candidates ran for seats on the Board of Representatives, Board of Finance and Board of Education.
Prosecutors allege that Mallozzi’s handwriting matched that of signatures on 14 ballots assigned to voters who did not request them.
Mallozzi pleaded not guilty in March. The case has been quiet since then.
“It’s the first time we’ve had a chance to bring it before a judge to help figure out what might be done to resolve it before trial,” Seeger said.
Seeger said earlier this year that a trial would reveal a “broken” absentee ballot system in which the town clerk’s office “gave the ballots in bunches to people other than those who requested them” — a violation of state law.
If there is no trial, a settlement still may reveal that the system needs fixing, Seeger said Wednesday.
“We have a staff of very competent judges.” he said. “They might be able to deliver a message from the bench that could make a difference.”
Mallozzi’s arrest reverberated in city and state political circles. He chaired the Democratic City Committee from 2012 to 2016 and played a key role in Mayor David Martin’s 2013 election victory. Mallozzi also was a member of the Democratic State Central Committee.
The alleged fraud came to light when Republican Registrar of Voters Lucy Corelli contacted the State Elections Enforcement Commission to report that a Stamford man voted twice in the 2015 election — once in person and once by absentee ballot.
It turned out that the man had not voted absentee, but a ballot had been taken out in his name. Investigators traced it to Mallozzi after learning that the town clerk’s office wrote on each ballot application the initials of the person who’d requested it. The man’s application, and others, had Mallozzi’s initials on them.
In 2017 sources close to the investigation told the Stamford Advocate that former Town Clerk Donna Loglisci, a Republican, routinely provided blank absentee ballots to party workers, even though state law requires that they go directly to voters.
According to Mallozzi’s arrest affidavit, Loglisci admitted to giving unmarked absentee ballots to Mallozzi and to receiving marked ballots back from him. She was a witness in the investigation and was not charged.
Loglisci, who had been town clerk for 16 years, ran again in 2017 but was defeated by Democrat Lyda Ruijter.
After Mallozzi’s arrest, city officials said some citizens have made it a practice to use absentee ballots as a form of early voting to avoid having to go to the polls on Election Day. Nearly three dozen states allow inperson voting a few days before an election, but Connecticut does not.
Something must be done to tighten the absentee ballot system, Seeger said.
“When the town clerk is involved in loosening up the regulations, it breeds a complacency in the process. The town clerk is the centerpoint of this system and there has to be accountability there. I’m not saying it doesn’t have to trickle down, but there is accountability further up the flagpole,” he said.
“This has happened historically, and people got used to it,” Seeger said. “In that environment, Mr. Mallozzi would not have been the only person involved. This is food for thought for everybody.”
He cited a situation that occurred in Bridgeport in September, when Mayor Joe Ganim was challenged in a Democratic primary by state Sen. Marilyn Moore.
Moore won the machine vote but lost the primary because an unusually large number of absentee ballots were cast for Ganim. The Connecticut Post found voters who said they were pressured by Ganim campaign workers to cast their absentee ballots for the mayor, as were ineligible felons and unregistered voters.
Three Bridgeport voters and two activist groups filed a lawsuit seeking a primary doover. The state Supreme Court got the case Monday and accepted the primary, allowing the election to proceed.
On Tuesday Ganim won a second term. He’d held the job from 19912003, when he resigned in a corruption scandal that landed him in prison for seven years.
In Monday’s ruling the court indicated it may grant the plaintiffs broader standing in contesting election results in the Ganim case, which their attorney characterized as a partial victory.
“If we can’t learn from the Mallozzi case and the Bridgeport case, we’re never going to learn anything,” Seeger said. “These practices start with local races and move up the chain to state races, federal races. It’s systemic.”
He said the Mallozzi case could be resolved in the coming weeks.
“I don’t think it will be months. There could be movement Friday or our next time in court,” Seeger said. “The process has to play itself out.”