First posted on Instagram · @profilopolitics
Former Democratic Connecticut state Senator Dennis Bradley was arrested Tuesday on four criminal charges over absentee ballot tampering — and the case against him includes something prosecutors rarely get: the whole thing on video. A Bridgeport voter's kitchen surveillance camera captured Bradley opening her sealed absentee ballot and walking her through changing her vote to his brother.
Watch: WTNH News 8 on Bradley's arrest in the Bridgeport absentee ballot investigation.
Inspectors from the Statewide Prosecution Bureau in the Office of Chief State's Attorney Patrick Griffin arrested Bradley, 42, on a warrant charging him with two counts of illegal possession of absentee ballots and envelopes, one count of being present while an absentee ballot applicant executes a ballot, and one count of unlawfully opening a ballot. He was released on a promise to appear in Bridgeport Superior Court on October 21.
The charges trace back to July 30, when Bradley knocked on the apartment door of Bridgeport voter Alesia Dennis. Her absentee ballot for the August 11 Democratic primary — probate judge, incumbent Paul Ganim versus Bradley's brother Mark — was already filled out and sealed. What Bradley didn't know was that she had a security camera in her kitchen. In the footage, Bradley picks at the corners of her sealed envelope until it comes open. "You did a good job sealing this bad boy," he tells her, before instructing her to cross out her vote for Ganim and fill in his brother. "We can fix it. You can fix it," he says, then coaches her on what to tell anyone who asks: say she did it on her own and nobody touched it.
Dennis told NBC Connecticut she went along because she felt intimidated. "I felt intimidated," she said — and after Bradley left, she handed the ballot to police instead of mailing it, then voted in person at the registrar's office. "I shouldn't have to go through that twice." She filed a complaint with Bridgeport police on August 5 and with the State Elections Enforcement Commission the next day.
She may not be the only one. The arrest warrant describes a second voter, Ray Newby, who told investigators Bradley showed up at his home, asked who he'd voted for, and when Newby answered Ganim, Bradley took his sealed absentee ballot — Newby later picked Bradley out of a photo lineup. About a dozen voters have told local reporters similar stories of the Bradley brothers knocking on doors to examine and adjust absentee ballots. When News 8 confronted Bradley with the surveillance video back in August, all he would say was, "It appears to be me."
Bradley's attorney, Darnell Crosland, says his client maintains his innocence, calls the allegations "paper thin," and argues the footage shown in news reports was edited. Crosland also insists voters have every right to change their ballots — which misses the point prosecutors are making: the charges aren't about a voter reconsidering, they're about a former senator allegedly possessing and opening someone else's sealed ballot while steering the vote to his own brother.
This isn't Bradley's first collision with the law. He was convicted earlier this year on federal wire fraud charges in a separate 2021 campaign case and is still awaiting sentencing — his law license already suspended. Now the man who once wrote Connecticut's laws is answering to charges of breaking its election laws, on camera, with a court date three weeks out.