Ballots found, recount ordered in Barre race
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By David Delcore Times Argus Staff - Published: November 13, 2008
MONTPELIER – The plot thickened Wednesday even as a superior court judge kept alive Republican Leo Valliere's long-shot bid to hang on to his legislative seat in Barre by ordering a recount in the race that he narrowly lost to Democrat Paul Poirier last week.
In granting Valliere's request for a recount, Judge Helen Toor revealed that eight absentee ballots that were cast in a race that was decided by just 26 votes have not yet been opened or counted. Toor ordered Barre City Clerk Carol Dawes to fix that and amend her election results before bringing all of the nearly 3,800 ballots that were cast in last Tuesday's elections in Barre to Washington Superior Court in Montpelier by the end of the day on Friday.
According to Dawes, the ballots were discovered last Thursday in the "lockable file cabinet drawer" where all absentee ballots were kept prior to Tuesday's election. She said she had no doubt that the ballots were in the drawer before the polls closed.
"I'm sure of it," she said, explaining that the stray ballots must have been missed when the drawer in her City Hall office was emptied and the absentee ballots transported to the Barre Municipal Auditorium on Election Day.
Responding to Toor's order, Dawes called a special meeting of the local Board of Civil Authority for 5 p.m. today to count the eight ballots. Valliere, who serves as chairman of the local board, and his wife, Anne, will not be allowed to participate in that count. Neither will Poirier, who, by virtue of his service on the City Council, is a de facto member of the board of civil authority.
During Wednesday's hearing Toor ordered both candidates to provide County Clerk Claire Mee with the names of 10 county residents who would be willing to serve on the committee that will be responsible for conducting the recount that will start next Tuesday at 9 a.m.
At the outset of the hearing, Valliere made it clear he was not interested in challenging the results of the election at this time.
"Today we're here to request a recount, we're not here to contest the election," he said, responding to Toor's questions about a host of issues he referenced in his request.
Among other things, Valliere cited "improprieties" and "inconsistencies" involving some voter addresses, and noted some of the ballots in his race against Poirier were mistakenly fed into the machines tabulating the results in two neighboring legislative districts.
Dawes acknowledged as much, reiterating her explanation that the machines designated to tabulate results in Barre's three legislative districts were pre-programmed to accept and count ballots from any one of the districts.
That certainly appears to be what happened on Election Day. The machine tabulating the results in the Washington 3-1 district, where Poirier was attempting to unseat Valliere, gave the Democrat a 28-vote edge, 906-878. However, Valliere picked up 10 votes and Poirier seven, according to the machine tabulating results in the Washington, 3-2 district, and Poirier received another vote in the race, according to the machine counting the results in the Washington 3-3 district.
Based on the combined results of the three machines — and excluding the eight absentee ballots that were subsequently discovered and have yet to be counted — Poirier won the race, 914-888. According to results that were reported on Election Day, there were three write-ins in the race, a single spoiled ballot and 70 instances where no vote was registered in the race.
Given confusion that led to a smattering of Washington 3-1 ballots being distributed in the other two voting machines, Toor concluded those responsible for the recount would have to isolate those ballots.
"Wouldn't we need to find those (ballots) to do the recount? Doesn't that seem obvious?" she asked. "I'd hate to do a recount and ignore that issue."
Dawes agreed.
"A recount would most likely have to look at all the ballots in all three districts," she said.
Dawes is expected to bring all of the nearly 3,800 Barre ballots to Montpelier by Friday where they will be stored securely at the courthouse until the recount starts next Tuesday. Mee said it could take up to two days to complete the recount.
Poirier, who was in the courtroom Wednesday, did not dispute Valliere's right to request a recount, but urged that it be conducted expeditiously given an upcoming orientation for new lawmakers that is scheduled to start next Thursday.
"The law says if you're within 5 percent you're entitled to a recount," he said. "He (Valliere) is entitled to a recount."
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