Connecticut billionaire and founder of Lone Pine Capital Stephen Mandel Jr., along with his wife Susan, have poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into getting no-excuse absentee ballots approved by voters in this year’s referendum.
The Mandels, who hosted President Joe Biden at their Greenwich home for a fundraiser starting at $25,000 per ticket, donated $215,000 each to Yes for Safe and Accessible Democracy, an independent expenditure organization created by The Connecticut Project, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that also has a 501(c)4 called the Connecticut Project Action Fund.
Stephen Mandel serves on the board of the 501(c)3 arm of The Connecticut Project, while his wife Susan sits on the board of the 501(c)4 Action Fund. The Action Fund also donated $360,594 to Yes for Safe and Accessible Democracy, putting the total funds at $790,594.
According to the latest filing, the organization has thus far spent a total of $240,940, including $72,000 on live calls supporting no-excuse absentee voting, $127,949 in radio ads, and $2,000 to former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin for consulting services.
Enacting no-excuse absentee ballot voting for Connecticut requires a change to the state constitution, which currently only allows absentee voting if one will be absent from their town and unable to get to a polling place on election day, or because of illness, disability, military service or religious restrictions.
However, the General Assembly passed a resolution during the 2023 session to allow no-excuse absentee ballot voting to be placed on the 2024 ballot for a statewide referendum. The measure was largely supported by Democrats who said Connecticut’s absentee voting rules were too strict and that voting protocols put in place during the COVID pandemic demonstrated its effectiveness.
Republicans, on the other hand, have pointed to the election scandal in Bridgeport, where campaign staff for Mayor Joe Ganim were caught on camera allegedly stuffing hundreds of absentee ballots into election drop boxes as proof that the current system is easily gamed and that any changes to absentee voting must come with more security.
Melvin Medina, who serves as treasurer for Yes for Safe and Accessible Democracy and vice president of advocacy and external affairs for the Connecticut Project, says that while the Bridgeport scandal is certainly fodder for those aligned with Donald Trump’s candidacy, he believes it also shows “systems responding to potential bad actors,” and that Connecticut can increase access to absentee ballots while balancing security.
“More importantly, we can do two at once. We can expand access to the ballot box to make sure more people can vote, and we can do that in a way that’s secure,” Medina said. “And it’s up to the legislature – if this ballot measure passes – to take both of those things seriously.”
Medina says this is not The Connecticut Project’s first foray into a referendum question, the organization having supported the 2022 ballot measure to implement early voting, which was approved by voters by a 60-40 margin and then implemented by the General Assembly in 2023 to allow two weeks of early voting in general elections.
“We did some early work a couple years ago when early voting was on the ballot and primarily, we funded the kind of coalition effort that ballot measure was running on,” Medina said. “This time around the Connecticut Project Action Fund — democracy being one of the core elements that we focus on — we knew this [no-excuse absentee voting] measure would only be successful if people were aware of it.”
Mandel’s funding for the absentee ballot issue pales in comparison to the $1.5 million in donations to Impact CT, Inc, another independent expenditure organization backing Democrat candidates across the state, particularly in tight races, like Nick Simmons who is campaigning for state senate against Ryan Fazio, R-Greenwich, and Rob Blanchard who is campaigning against Sen. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield.
According to Open Secrets, the Mandel’s have contributed $16.4 million to national Democrat political action committees since March of 2023, with those funds supporting house and senate races in states across the country.
Here in Connecticut, however, municipalities are experiencing their first major election with early voting, and numbers appear higher than expected, with more than 316,000 people voting so far, and Tuesday will ultimately determine whether the Bridgeport voting absentee ballot scandal soured voters on granting easier access to absentee ballots.
“This is our first general election with early voting. In November, voters will decide whether to amend the state constitution to allow no-excuse absentee ballots—a significant and potentially risky change without meaningful election security reforms,” said Senate Republican Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, and House Republican Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, in a June press release. “Meanwhile, Democrat party officials in Bridgeport have thumbed their noses at the controversy by embracing and even endorsing, people immersed in the bad behavior. When it comes to voter confidence, these are challenging times. We must act now to demonstrate to Connecticut residents that we’re taking this issue seriously.”
“We thought it would be great if we could go out, educate voters on what the ballot question is and as broadly as possible run a good communications campaign,” Medina said. “We were grateful to Steve for his contribution which excelled our effort to communicate effectively across Connecticut.”
“I think this ballot measure campaign is about expanding access to all voters to be able to vote absentee because it helps working folks, it helps seniors, it helps people with disabilities,” Medina said. “I think their contribution speaks to that.”
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