Five people, including three Bridgeport City Council members and the vice chair of the city’s Democratic Party, were charged with 156 counts of ballot fraud on Friday.

The charges come after videos of campaign workers stuffing absentee ballot boxes made national headlines.

Wanda Geter-Pataky is used to being on camera.

In 2023, surveillance videos caught her stuffing stacks of absentee ballots into drop boxes in Bridgeport. Those videos led a judge to order a re-do of the Democratic primary for mayor.

Now, Geter-Pataly is facing 92 counts of election crimes – including illegally possessing ballots, fraudulent voting, watching someone vote and misrepresenting the eligibility requirements to vote absentee.

Geter-Pataky had no comment as she turned herself into Connecticut State Police on Friday morning. But last year, her husband insisted that she did nothing wrong.

“This is political. This is from sore losers that couldn’t function within the system,” Bryan Pataky told News 12 Connecticut. “They were allowed to do the same thing, and they just didn’t have the manpower and the experience behind it.”

Three City Council members were charged with similar crimes – Alfredo Castillo, Maria Pereira and Jazmarie Melendez.

Pereira faces 31 counts, including forgery and disorderly conduct.

“I’m going to win,” she told reporters Friday. “I’ve defeated the Bridgeport PD four times with zero convictions. I’m going to win this, too.”

City Councilman Alfredo Castillo was charged with 18 election crime counts. His attorney urged people not to jump to conclusions.

“This is, I think, bigger than just Alfredo Castillo. But we need to see what the evidence is. We need to see what it is they claim he did, as well as the other people too,” said attorney Frank Riccio. “If they’re claiming some sort of conspiracy that they were together, I think it’s too early to tell because we haven't seen anything yet.”

Another City Council member, Melendez, faces six counts of misrepresenting eligibility requirements. And a campaign worker, Margaret Joyce of Stratford, faces nine counts of ballot tampering.

Melendez’s attorney, Alexander Taubes, said in a statement that Melendez “categorically denies the baseless allegation” and is being targeted “political retribution.”

Castillo and Geter-Pataky and Castillo worked for Mayor Joe Ganim's 2023 campaign. Melendez and Pereira campaigned for challenger John Gomes, who lost the do-over election.

Castillo and Geter-Pataky already faced ballot tampering charges in the 2019 election.

Prosecutors accuse Castillo of filling out another man’s ballot for him.

“He just asked me to sign my name and then he would take care of it – handle it from there,” voter Kadeem Graham testified in a civil trial. “And that was the last I saw of the ballot.”

Despite her legal troubles, Bridgeport Democrats just re-elected Geter-Pataky as vice chair last year.

On Friday, one veteran Democratic lawmaker posted on X: “They need to go … like yesterday.”

All five suspects were released on a promise to appear in court on March 6. Geter-Pataky and Castillo are also due in court on March 14 for the 2019 ballot charges.

Since the ballot stuffing videos surfaced, state lawmakers tightened the rules around absentee ballots, including a 90-day time limit to refer potential crimes to prosecutors. Republicans argued that the changes don’t go far enough.

Prosecutors said they hope Friday’s arrests are a deterrent.

“It is important that our elections are fair and free from fraudulent activity and criminal intent,” said Chief State’s Attorney Patrick Griffin. “These prosecutions hopefully send the message that deters tampering with election results in the future in Connecticut.”