Chris Reddy, the Republican challenger in the 29th Senate District, complained Tuesday to the State Elections Enforcement Commission that some voters in his close loss to Sen. Mae Flexer, D-Windham, might have been ineligible to vote.
Unofficial results showed Flexer winning reelection by 589 votes, a result boosted by a Democratic campaign to entice University of Connecticut students to register and cast votes during early voting and on Election Day.
“The information presented in this 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,” Reddy said in his complaint.
Neither the commission nor the secretary of the state’s office have the authority to unilaterally reject votes certified by local elections officials, which would require a court order. His campaign manager, Wendy Sears, said a court challenge still is possible.
“We have not ruled anything out at this time,” Sears said.
The Republican and Democratic registrars, Vera Ward and Anne Greineder, issued a joint statement defending the locally certified results.
“We are confident the election results in Mansfield are accurate. Protecting everyone’s right to vote is of the utmost importance,” they said. “Due to the crush of first-time voters at Town Hall on Election Day, processing all the registrations and votes was time-consuming. However, it must be emphasized that processing of registrations and tabulation of ballots was all completed within permissible timeframes.”
Reddy complained that the 2,522 same-day registrations recorded in Mansfield, the home of UConn’s flagship campus, set the record in 2024, outdoing the 2,058 registered in the larger city of New Haven, the home to Yale University.
Democrats paid for door hangers telling students to “’VOTE DEMOCRAT, VOTE ROW A’, placed them on dorm room doors across campus, provided fully paid for coach buses to drive students to and from the polling station, and paid for pizza which was placed on tables inside the 75-foot line,” the complaint said.
None of those actions are necessarily violations of state law. The reference to the 75-foot line is the proximity to the polls beyond campaigning cannot be conducted. Reddy said he believed as many as 561 new voters were not properly registered in the allowable time frames.
Last week, after Reddy first announced his intention to file a complaint, he was rebuked in a joint statement by the Democratic and Republican town committee chairs in Mansfield, Ben Shaiken and Bill Tomecko, respectively.
“We are confident that the votes cast in Mansfield, including those of approximately 3,000 UConn students, were lawfully cast and properly counted. 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,” they said, “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.”
Sears said the statement was issued without Tomecko talking to the campaign about its concerns. The complaint alleges an unidentified witness saw “an election official…inside of a conference room with the door closed and shades drawn, seated at a table in the presence of, and opening, handling and counting official ballots, with no other person present.
“This calls into question every ballot that was in this official’s presence during the time that she did not have an opposing party official present.”
Flexer could not be reached for comment.