CT Supreme Court Sends South Windsor Election Case Back To Lower Court

HARTFORD, CT — The state’s Supreme Court has sent back the case of a South Windsor Democratic candidate for Town Council to be reexamined by the Superior Court, where a judge dismissed the case late last year. 

Harrison Amadasun, a Democratic candidate for Town Council, is named as a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed in November against Town Clerk Bonnie Armstrong, who denied Amadasun a seat on the Town Council despite Democrats’ arguments that he had secured to votes for it.  

According to her dismissal of the case, issued in December 2025, Superior Court Judge Susan Cobb concluded that Amadasun did not establish that he was aggrieved by Armstrong’s decision, which is required under state statutes. 

After hearing oral arguments on Tuesday, the Supreme Court unanimously reversed the lower court’s decision and remanded the case to the trial court for further review. A written decision has not yet been issued, but will be in the near future, Chief Justice Raheem Mullins said during the ruling.

John Kennelly, one of the attorneys for Amadasun, said the court made a rare step in issuing an oral ruling immediately after hearing arguments, adding that the case is about transparency. 

“At the upcoming trial, we will investigate the outcome and ensure there was no nefarious intent,” Kennelly said in a statement. “Harrison is a good man, will be a better public servant, and deserves to serve on the South Windsor Town Council.”

One of the arguments that came up Tuesday was whether Armstrong made rulings in determining where charter revisions applied. 

While Cobb had said in her dismissal that Armstrong merely made determinations once the election was over — not applicable to the election process — Kennelly argued that she did make such rulings. 

For instance, as the revisions would apply to the Town Council, five Democrats and four Republicans were the winners of seats on the Town Council, but the Town Clerk also decided that the revisions to the charter did not apply to the position of treasurer or the three-member Board of Selectmen and declared winners in each of these contests.

“There had been a referendum, which is a form of an election, is basically the election of an idea, but she made a determination on how the results of the referendum interfaced with the results of the election for individual candidates,” Kennelly argued. “How is that not a ruling? How is the decision to seat some and not others, not a ruling of an election official?” 

Attorneys for Armstrong argued that the matter before the court is whether Amadasun can invoke the “expedited review statutes” — review of vote outcomes in a select scenario — to challenge Armstrong’s application of minority representation provision in a charter to the election results, which they claim he can’t.

“The instant matter thus is not whether any voters were disenfranchised as plaintiff claims. That goes to the merits of the plaintiff’s allegations, which the defendant disputes,” attorney Jesse Langer argued. “We’re here on a motion to dismiss.” 

Richard D. Carella, a South Windsor town attorney who also represents Armstrong, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment after the decision.

Democratic Town Committee Chair Anitha Elango said the court’s decision is a victory for democracy and the voters. 

“This fight is not over as we return to Superior Court, but we are confident the evidence will speak for itself, and Harrison Amadasun will rightfully take his seat on the Town Council, delivering the success our voters deserve,” she said.

Chairman of the South Windsor Republican Town Committee Miguel Proano, meanwhile, posted a message to the RTC’s Facebook page Tuesday night, saying that the party would respect the judicial process and remained confident that the democratic process will prevail. 

“The charter revision was approved by South Windsor voters as written on Election Day, and we hope the court ultimately upholds the will of the people,” Proano wrote. “While we support the case moving forward through the proper legal channels, we also remain strongly opposed to the continued waste of town funds and municipal resources to defend a matter already decided at the ballot box.”

Proano wrote that the GOP also opposes what he said are, “ongoing attempts by Democrats to besmirch the Town Clerk and her character as a justification for this case. The Town Clerk has served South Windsor with professionalism, integrity and dedication for years and has done so with consistent bipartisan respect and support.”

Elango said everyone should agree that ensuring every vote counts is fundamental to democracy, “and why this case was filed on an expedited basis to resolve the matter quickly, fairly, and to minimize disruption to our community.”

She added that each day the council operated risked calling its decisions into question, “underscoring why we are fighting in court and the importance of protecting our democratic processes.”

Members of the Democratic Town Committee said at the time filing of the lawsuit that voters elected six Democrats and three Republicans to the Town Council. Voters had also approved charter revisions that Democrats say were not meant to take effect until the next election cycle. 

Republicans countered that the charter revisions were in effect, and now restrict a supermajority, so Democrats could only maintain a 5-4 majority, which they currently have. Democrats said this nullified thousands of legitimate votes and stripped Amadasun (3,847 votes) of his seat, and handed it over to Republican Rick Balboni (2,937 votes).

Amadasun received the sixth largest number of votes of a nominated Democratic candidate for the town council, according to the decision, but because the charter revision limited the majority party to five seats, Amadasun was left without a seat.

In her dismissal, Cobb wrote that Armstrong’s decision was made in conformity with the charter revisions, according to the decision, “and the defendant was merely applying and abiding by the law,” the decision states. However, in the statement released by South Windsor Democrats Tuesday, they released a link to a video they say shows the Charter Review Commission members agreeing that the charter revisions would take effect in 2027.