Annette Smith will get her day in court, or rather her day in many courts, this coming Thursday. A Vermont superior court judge has ruled that her call for a recount is warranted.
The environmental activist and write-in candidate for the Progressive Party gubernatorial ticket asked for a recount last Thursday after the Vermont Secretary of State’s office corrected the primary tally.
Martha Abbott, the Progressive Party chair, had been declared the winner last Tuesday, with 371 votes. After the state canvassing committee reviewed revised totals from the Hardwick and Walden town clerks offices, Smith won 370 ballots.
Washington Superior Court Judge Richard Bent ruled Smith qualified for a recount because the difference in the percentage of the total votes cast between the two candidates is less than 2 percent.
The recount will be conducted by county superior court clerks. Town clerks will bring the ballots in sealed bags to each county court on Wednesday and the recount will commence at 9 a.m. on Thursday.
Secretary of State Jim Condos says he thinks the recount will be finished by Friday.
“We think it can be done in one day, there is one caveat though, because of the judiciary reorganizing, county clerks never been through this before,” Condos said.
The Secretary of State’s office will give the county clerks advice, but cannot be involved in the recount in any way. “This is under the court’s jurisdiction,” Condos said. “Our hands are off it now.”
Last Thursday, Jack Lindley, the chair of the GOP, complained about Condos’ handling of the primary and tried to have his name redacted from the canvassing committee report that was issued (and signed) on Tuesday and then corrected on Thursday. He said he would not sign off on a 5-day notification waiver that Condos said could delay processing of ballots for military personnel and other Vermonters who are overseas.
Condos’ said the judge’s decision made the waiver question moot.
“It puts us in a bind,” Condos said. “We’ll work our way through it. We may have to email ballots to military and overseas voters. It’s not what we usually do.”
The ballots would be scanned as PDFs and sent to town clerks who would forward the ballots on to registered voters via email. The state, however, does not have a system for receiving emailed ballots. They would have to be returned by mail.
