In a Nov. 12 filing to the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC), Republican candidate Chris Reddy of Connecticut’s 29th Senate District challenged the integrity of Mansfield’s ballot count, citing unlawful election procedures and coercive Democratic campaigning at the University of Connecticut’s Storrs campus.
“Chris Reddy and his team called on the Secretary of State’s office to withhold certification of this election until these red flags are satisfactorily investigated and resolved,” reads a Nov. 12 Facebook post from Reddy’s campaign.
Reddy claims voter integrity issues gave Democratic incumbent Mae Flexer the lead in an already close race, with the CT Secretary of the State ballot totals declaring 20,796 (48.41%) votes for Reddy and 21,385 (49.78%) votes for Flexer.
According to Reddy’s submission to the SEEC, “Voters in the 29th District and across the state of Connecticut find it shocking to see that the Town of Mansfield recorded 1753 Same Day registrations by the morning of 11/06/2024, only to adjust their final numbers by the evening of 11/08/2024 to record 2522 total SDR. That is an adjustment of 769 additional registrations.”
Reddy’s team raised alarms at the numbers, which they claim are disproportionate in relation to the size of Mansfield. “A simple web search of the population of Mansfield, CT yields a 2024 population of approximately 25k residents. With New Haven receiving the next highest number of same day registrations at 2058, and a 2024 population of about 137k residents, it highlights the extreme disparity between Mansfield’s outrageous numbers and every other municipality across the state,” the submission continued.
The focus of Reddy’s concerns surrounds the University of Connecticut’s Bookstore polling location, where he alleges Flexer’s campaign “overtly pressured” student voters and election officials engaged in fraudulent tabulation.
“I can confirm that we have knowledge of a direct witness to the Mansfield election official who was seated, alone, in the conference room with the door closed, handling, opening and counting ballot envelopes. This is a clear violation and calls into question every ballot that was in her presence during this time,” Reddy stated in a Nov. 17 release. “If one considers the fact that Election Day Registration ballots numbered 1139 in Mansfield, poll workers would have to confirm voter eligibility status at a rate of more than 1 per minute for the duration of the 14 hours (840 minutes) polling centers were open on Tuesday.”
The Republican candidate further disputed the practices of his opponent, calling into question the legality of Democratic campaign practices. “We have questions as to whether actions employed by the Democrats in Mansfield and the influencing of UConn students to same day register to vote and then vote exclusively ‘Row A, Vote Democrat’, even if they live somewhere else. For example, thousands of door cards were placed on doorknobs inside dormitories at UConn despite this activity being expressly prohibited. The text on the door card stated that students can vote even if you aren’t registered or are registered in your hometown.”
Connecticut electioneering prohibitions regarding Reddy’s claims of door-to-door campaigning are vague in their interpretation, with statutes allowing for the distribution of political material on most public property, with some exceptions. The question of whether UConn dormitories are private property has not been codified in state law, although UConn itself is a public institution.
Reddy’s comments alleged that preferential treatment towards UConn voters by local Democrats raised the question of conspiratorial intentions, noting, “After the aggressive dormitory inducement to vote Democrat, the Mansfield DTC provided luxury buses and offered free pizza to UConn students at the polling location. Questions arise as to whether these actions were intentionally created to produce such an unmanageable volume of Election Day Registrations at the Mansfield location that officials and poll workers would be stretched too thin to manage proper verification and processing procedures.”
Reddy additionally claimed that services to assist and incentivize voter turnout were directed primarily towards the student population, and disregarded other Mansfield residents including senior citizens.
“All voters and students who believe that fairness is an essential right and that election integrity is paramount should question that none of the other 16 polling locations in the 29th district received any of these same overt pressure tactics, all of which were aimed directly at students. To many constituents these questionable and unprecedented tactics appear to be heavy-handed attempts to put pressure on impressionable, first-time voters,” stated Reddy.
In response to Reddy’s claims, the Mansfield Republican and Democratic Town Committee Chairs G. William Tomecko and Ben Shaiken issued a joint statement on Nov. 10 upholding the validity of polling outcomes.
“We are confident that the votes cast in Mansfield, including those of approximately 3,000 UConn students, were lawfully cast and properly counted,” stated the release. “We are disappointed that Chris Reddy and his campaign are challenging the validity of Tuesday’s election and attempting to disqualify the votes of thousands of Mansfield citizens. It was a free, fair, secure and extremely well-organized election and his comments do nothing but sow discord and division among the voters of Mansfield and the 29th district.”
The Reddy campaign addressed this condemnation directly, stating, “The joint statement issued by the Mansfield DTC/RTC chairs was released without the RTC chair (G. William Tomecko) contacting myself or my campaign to learn the allegations surrounding the numerous potential violations we have knowledge of or witnessed either before, on or after Election Day at the Mansfield Town Hall, Mansfield Community Center or other locations.”
The Republican campaign additionally emphasized their view of Mansfield polls being aberrant in relation to other in-district municipalities, stating, “In the larger context of fairness, consider the fact that six of the nine towns in the 29th district voted overwhelmingly in the majority for Chris Reddy for State Senate on Nov. 5. Despite my tireless efforts in the district, the single most destructive weapon to the will of the majority appears to be the Mae Flexer legislative orchestration of Same Day Voter Registration and Early Voting on the UConn campus.”
Flexer, who has served as Mansfield’s state Senate elect since 2015, spearheaded ballot accessibility efforts to create a mandatory early-voting window and to implement no-excuse absentee ballots. The Democratic incumbent viewed Reddy’s challenges as a threat to the representation of UConn students in local government.
“In the Senate District that Mr. Reddy unsuccessfully sought to represent, nearly one out of every five constituents is a college student. These constituents deserve a strong voice for their community – something I always have been and always will be, especially as someone who first sought office while a UConn student. While I work to balance the needs of everyone in our district, I tell the same thing to every classroom that I get the opportunity to speak to, from kindergarten to college students – no one is more impacted by the decisions that I am charged to make than young people,” said Flexer in a Nov. 17 statement.
“College students have a vested interest in state budgets that determine their tuition and academic opportunities, public health infrastructure in an area of the state where hospitals are struggling to provide care, finding solutions for affordable housing and job growth and so much more. And since the Dobbs decision, the state legislature is the front line for protecting reproductive freedom. I find it extremely troubling that someone who sought this office is making the case that students do not deserve a voice in our local elections,” concluded the release.
Voter integrity concerns have not been isolated to Mansfield this election cycle, with District 16’s Senator Rob Sampson (R) casting doubt on polls around the state. Sampson supported Reddy’s claims, calling for a recount amid similar challenges in Torrington, where Republican new-comer Joe Canino secured Democratic incumbent Michelle Cook’s seat in the CT House of Representatives through a margin of 54 votes.
“As they prepare this public review due to ‘extenuating circumstances’ in Torrington, where is the public review due to ‘extenuating circumstances’ in Mansfield? We want to see an open public process, not ballots run in the dark of night. Where and when will a similar transparent review happen in Mansfield?” expressed Sampson.
Leaders in the state Senate condemned election integrity challenges during Connecticut’s early voting period, citing efforts in the Republican Party nationwide to divide voters and decrease trust in the democratic process.