A special monitor will oversee Bridgeport's election this November.

Bridgeport has a long history of absentee ballot issues. But now, thanks to new legislation, the city is getting a monitor to prevent irregularities.

State Rep. Chris Rosario says he has seen it firsthand.

"I remember being part of Town Committee elections and winning on the machines and then come to find out -- here comes the forecast and it's absentee ballot showers. And then you get wiped out," said Rosario.

Last year, Joe Ganim got re-elected as mayor, thanks to absentee ballots. But later, a judge found clear abuses in how those ballots were collected.

"People didn't understand that they were actually voting absentee. They were being manipulated into voting for a candidate that they didn't want," said Gemeem Davis, of Bridgeport Generation Now.

New legislation would appoint an election monitor -- only for Bridgeport -- to "detect and prevent irregularity and impropriety." It would be similar to the monitor appointed in 2017, when a judge ordered a new primary for Bridgeport City Council.

The bill only provides a monitor for this November's election. Backers hope to expand it to other cities.