[L]ongtime Vermont State Senator Bill Doyle is asking for a recount after Tuesday’s election.
According to unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s office, Doyle lost his Senate seat by 189 votes.
Doyle was first elected to the Senate in 1968 and has served continuously since that time. He is well known for the “Doyle Poll,” an informal survey of Vermonters on key issues conducted every year on Town Meeting Day. He is a professor of government at Johnson State College.
Incumbents Anthony Pollina, a Progressive-Democrat, and Democrat Ann Cummings came in first and second respectively in the three-seat Washington County district. Democrat Francis Brooks, a former sergeant-at-arms and House representative, edged out Doyle for the third spot.
Doyle won 13,498 votes, while Brooks won 13,687.
That difference falls within the margin of 2 percent of all 92,231 votes cast in the race necessary for a candidate to request a recount.
In a petition filed with the civil division of superior court in Washington County this week, Doyle noted that his name is similar to that of another candidate, Republican Michael Doyle, no relation, who won almost 9 percent of the vote with 8,236 votes. That could have caused confusion, Bill Doyle asserts.
