SEEC dismisses 2024 election complaint 

The State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC) dismissed the 2024 election complaint, which claimed that Mansfield registered ineligible voters and allowed electioneering within 75 feet of a polling location.  

The complaint, filed by Republican Chris Reddy, then-candidate for Connecticut’s 29th state senate district, claimed that “Mansfield violated the law in administering early voting in connection with the November 5, 2024 election” at the University of Connecticut Bookstore. 

It also said that Mae Flexer, then-candidate for the 29th senatorial district, Gregg Haddad, then-candidate for District 54 state representative and Ben Shaiken, chairman for the Mansfield Democratic Town Committee violated the law “by serving pizza to individuals waiting [in] line to register and to vote at the Mansfield Community Center and Town Hall” on election day.  

Flexer and Haddad both won their respective elections in 2024.  

The original complaint “calls into question the veracity and validity of the election results and clearly identifies the need for thorough investigation before the results of this election are certified.” It specifically questions the 1,753 same-day registrations Mansfield reported the morning after the election. Two days later, the town adjusted the numbers to report 2,522 same-day registrations.  

“That is an adjustment of 769 additional registrations. A simple web search of the population of Mansfield, CT yields a 2024 population of approximately 25k residents,” the complaint read. “With New Haven receiving the next highest number of same day registrations at 2,058, 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.” 

According to a press release from the Mansfield Democratic Town Committee, UConn students count for nearly 14% of the 29th state senate district.  

The complaint also mentioned other “tactics” that Mansfield Democrats used for the “enticement of the student population at UConn to vote in Mansfield elections,” including “[financing] door hangers telling students to ‘VOTE DEMOCRAT, VOTE ROW A’, [placing] them on dorm room doors across campus, [providing] fully paid for coach buses to drive students to and from the polling station and [paying] for pizza which was placed on tables inside the 75-foot line.” 

In their dismissal, the SEEC said that the bookstore polling location, which was used for the first time that year, was approved for early voting by the Office of the Secretary of State. It said that during their investigation, the SEEC reviewed documents and site set-up, did a site inspection and interviewed election officials regarding the early voting process.  

The dismissal also said that Mansfield election officials stressed registration and voting requirements to all individuals who came in and provided instructions to UConn students for registering and voting in Mansfield. The whole process was approved and done with “due diligence,” the dismissal said.  

Regarding the pizza table, through a site investigation, photos, measurements and interviews, the SEEC determined that the pizza table was outside of the 75-foot line.  

According to Connecticut’s Office of Legislative Research, the 75-foot rule requires “anyone from soliciting support for or opposition to a candidate or a ballot question within a 75-foot radius of the outside entrance to a polling place, in a hallway or other approach leading from the entrance, or in a room opening upon any such hallway or approach.” The line must be clearly indicated.  

The SEEC determined that the Mansfield Town Hall and Community Center pizza tables met these requirements, as there was a clearly tabled 75-foot line and the pizza table fell outside of the line. The commission found that both Democrats and Republicans congregated around the table throughout Election Day as well.  

“The Commission can conclude after an extensive and thorough investigation, which included both field site investigations as well as substantial document production from the elections officials in Mansfield that this matter should be dismissed based on a failure of the facts and the law,” SEEC attorney William Smith said at a commission meeting on Nov. 5.