Most people think that a recount is a simple, straightforward event that results in an easily discernable winner after a hand count shows the obvious intent of every ballot. That used to be the case before our new mail in voting laws were put in place, and I actually got to view recounts in some local elections. My friend Jim Kelcourse won a close race for State Rep. in the First Essex District while Ken Gray won an even closer one for Mayor of Amesbury.
As with every other recount I had been involved with the final results did not change much from the vote on election day. Disputed ballots got argued by lawyers on each side, and the policies for determining the “will of the voter” was consistent in every town. Most importantly, the recounts had pretty much the same number of ballots as the original election, something that was always taken for granted.
This time would be different.
We were very fortunate to have excellent legal counsel at the first three recounts in Georgetown, Hamilton, and Topsfield recommended to us by Ron Kaufman, our GOP National Committeeman, as he got Darin Gibbons to represent us. After all the haggling over disputed ballots the lead only changed by one vote as our ten vote lead went to nine.
On the third day of the recount Gibbons left to work on the runoff election for U.S. Senate between Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnok down in Georgia. We were left with a volunteer lawyer from the MA GOP to represent us in Ipswich where we would eventually lose five votes.
The first step in a recount is a fresh count of all ballots to make sure there’s the same number of them as on election day. For some inexplicable reason the counters in Ipswich found fourteen additional ballots at the recount than were counted on election day. It’s not uncommon to have a recount be off by one or two ballots, but fourteen was outrageous.
More frustratingly, there were “chain of custody” issues in Ipswich as mailed in ballots were not put into the secure box provided for elections and instead were put into an unsecure box that all town workers had access to instead of just the Town Clerk, as required by law.
Regardless, the recount went on and ballots were divided into piles of fifty each and delivered to tables where two official counters, usually Town Clerks from nearby towns, would conduct the recount with one worker announcing the name of the chosen candidate while the other would tabulate the count. Each candidate was allowed two volunteers to oversee the process with one watching who was chosen on each ballot as the other tabulated the response and checked on the tabulation by the official counter.
This may seem like a straightforward process and for over 99% of ballots it truly is. But several dozen ballots were challenged by the volunteers in both camps. Many objected to ballots filled in with pencil instead of ink, or with the wrong-colored ink. These objections are disregarded as our laws clearly state that the “will of the voter” is what matters.
It gets a lot more complicated when a circle for a candidate is not filled in entirely, or a stray mark next to a circle or name is present, or when more than one circle is filled out for the same seat. In these cases volunteers would raise a challenge to the decision made by the trained election workers at the table and the ballot would be then be given to a group of citizen volunteers known as the Board of Registrars. These registrars receive no formal training in election laws, but they are the final judges on contested ballots.
Challenges came up in every town but in Ipswich our untrained lawyer was unprepared to argue effectively against Gerry McDonough, my opponent’s lawyer who has a lot of years working in election cases. Our lawyer tried to challenge every ballot filled out in pencil or the wrong-colored ink, making a very long, tedious day even longer. Moreover, he addressed them in very flowery language, repeating himself often. It was clear that not only was he not effective in arguing before the Registrars, he was actually angering them, their frustrations very evident by anyone watching.
This is where the contested ballots came into play. Instead of completely filled out circles, several ballots had marks, checks, or scribbles in them. But the guidelines sent to us by the Secretary of State’s office had clear directions in how to interpret the will of the voters.
One of the contested ballots had circles filled out for both me and my opponent, but there was a line through mine and McDonough convinced the Registrars that the will of the voter was to vote for Kassner. On another a voter wrote the name Trump in the blank space provided for write-in candidates for the races where there was no Republican candidate. In my race he wrote in Trump and filled the circle for the write-in, but also filled out the circle next to my name. The counters at the table, who are Town Clerks and trained in election law, called the vote for me. But McDonough convinced the Registrars that since both circles were filled out then then it should be counted as a blank. We lost that vote.
Later that same day a ballot that had a scribble in the circle next to my name was called for me at the table, just as several others like that were called for Kassner. Somehow, McDonough managed to convince the Registrars to call it a blank because there was a stray mark elsewhere on the ballot.
These are the two contested ballots that would become the focus of the court case and subsequent Special House Committee.
While we lost five votes in Ipswich that day, cutting our lead to just four, we were also on our way to losing five more in Rowley. After the hand recount showed no change in the results, there were “spoiled” ballots that my opponent’s lawyers wanted to look at.
It gets better!
Wow - this story is even more interesting than what I heard! Thanks for writing this series.