[M]ONTPELIER – A panel of lawmakers that wants a second recount of a close election for a seat in the Statehouse from Orange County has approved a resolution calling on the House of Representatives to back its decision.
Former Rep. Susan Hatch Davis P-Washington, lost to Rep. Bob Frenier, a Republican from Chelsea in November by eight votes. In a recount in December, Hatch last by six votes. Lawmakers want the vote to be counted one more time.
Not everyone on the House Government Operations Committee was enthusiastic about the recount. Quite a few attempts to re-word the resolution failed before it was adopted by the panel.
The committee voted to 7 to 4 to send the five-page document to the full House, which has the final say on the recount request. The House is expected to take up the resolution and panel’s recommendation Wednesday.
The vote Friday on the resolution’s wording mirrored an earlier vote last week when the panel agreed to recommend to the full House that a new recount in the disputed election was needed.
In both cases, the votes split along party lines, with six Democrats and one Progressive on the committee in favor of the recount last week and later in support of the resolution Friday. The panel’s four Republicans voted against both measures.
“Even getting this far, we know how difficult it’s been,” Maida Townsend, chair of House Government Operations, said late Friday afternoon after the final wording of the resolution had been approved. “I thoroughly appreciate how hard everyone has worked and that has nothing to do with how the vote count came out.”
The committee spent two days last week taking testimony, hearing from attorneys, current and former lawmakers, state election officials and town clerks and many others. Then, this week, the committee spent parts of four days debating the issue and drafting the resolution.
On Friday, the panel spent a great deal of time discussing a paragraph in the resolution that included some of the claims raised by Hatch Davis and her attorney Vincent Illuzzi, a former Republican state senator, as to the reasons why they believed a new recount was warranted.
Those assertions, listed in a draft resolution, included that ballots were forced into a tabulator machine during an earlier recount and other ballots weren’t “manually inspected” before they were placed in the vote counter.
Also, another claim by Hatch Davis and her attorney, according to one of the draft resolutions, was that the “tabulator machines may not have functioned properly.”
That assertion raised concern, Will Senning, director of elections in the secretary of state’s office, told the committee Friday.
“I have heard nobody allege, or no fact that would indicate, that any vote on any ballot was misread by the tabulator,” Senning said. “In fact, I think the facts that we all know in the case, tend to show the opposite.”
The panel later agreed to remove the assertions from Hatch Davis and her attorney altogether from the resolution. The committee also decided against spelling out in the document the specific reasons why the new recount was needed.
“No matter what happens, we’re going to talk about it on the House floor,” Rep. Tristan Toleno, D-Brattleboro, a committee member, said.
“We’ll have a good robust discussion on the floor, I’m sure,” added Rep. Robert LaClair, R-Barre Town, also a committee member.
The committee, in voting last week for a new recount, already dealt a possible blow to Hatch Davis’ bid to pick up the votes she would needed to overcome Frenier. The panel decided against including in the new recount 14 ballots that previously had been deemed “defective.”
Hatch Davis had disputed whether town clerks had used a consistent method in deciding whether an absentee ballot was considered defective, and therefore should not be counted. By not including those “defective” ballots in the new recount, there is less of chance that Hatch Davis will be able to pick up additional votes.
A judge last month ruled Frenier defeated Hatch Davis by seven votes, 1,852 to 1,845 for the second House seat from the two-member Orange-1 district.
Frenier had earlier prevailed on Election Day and again during a recount. He has since been sworn-in as a House member. Hatch Davis appealed to the Superior Court to no avail and then to the House of Representatives, which under Vermont’s Constitution has the authority to judge the elections and qualifications of its members..
Hatch Davis had previously served five terms in the House representing the district’s towns of Chelsea, Vershire, Corinth, Washington, Williamstown and Orange.
Townsend, committee chair, said will report out the resolution and recount recommendation for debate on the House floor on Wednesday.
She added she is expecting “plentiful interrogation.”
