Tuesday morning’s recount of the 2022 Rochester Select Board vote at the Senior Center managed to get closer than the two-vote difference tabulated after the May 25 Town Election.
Incumbent Brad Morse retained his seat after the recount produced a 582-581 edge in his favor against Adam Murphy’s challenge. There were also counted two write-in votes and 32 ballots left blank. The original vote had Morse winning, 582-580, prompting Murphy’s immediate request for the recount.
“It was going one vote one way or one vote the other way. It just shows you every vote counts,” said Morse. “I was overly impressed with the process.”
Upon the result, Murphy shook hands with the victor and walked to the back of the room to tell his supporters, “He won by one vote.”
And that was it.
“It’s a loss, right? But it was necessary for the 580 people that did vote (for me) and we did it,” said Murphy. “There’s the outcome, one vote. Can’t really say much more than that.”
Murphy said he has no immediate plans to run again for Select Board. He ran in 2020 and lost a contentious race to incumbent Woody Hartley. Incumbent Paul Ciaburri ran unopposed in 2021.
Ciaburri and Planning Board and Conservation Commission member Ben Bailey were among the group of Morse’s observers stationed at two of the four tables where the recount was taken in the Senior Center. Marion Harbormaster Isaac Perry was among Murphy’s observers. Murphy is the Marion’s deputy harbormaster and shellfish officer.
The observers played a key role in the process, where each of the four tables was assigned a packet containing 50 ballots. Each table had a reader and a recorder. When a table finished a packet, it was returned and logged by staff sitting at a table at the front of the room. Then that table received another 50-ballot packet.
Tuesday’s recount was not Town Clerk Paul Dawson’s first ever, but it was the closest ever on his watch.
One Murphy vote and a second write-in vote were apparently missed in the original count. A missing write-in vote, explained Dawson, is often the result of a voter failing to color in the oval at the write-in line and only enter a name.
“The machine looks at that oval, it doesn’t look at anything else,” said Dawson, noting the effect on the overall ballot count. Tuesday’s 1,197 ballot total was one greater than the count tabulated on May 25; the discrepancy was discovered Tuesday morning when it was learned one of the 50-ballot envelopes actually contained 51 ballots.
By Mick Colageo