[A] runoff will be held Sept. 10 in the roller coaster race for state representative in Colchester that saw a write-in candidate initially win a spot on the general election ballot and then hang on only after producing her birth certificate.
A judge ruled on Wednesday that a voter who wrote Pam Loranger’s maiden name on their primary ballot intended to vote for Loranger, leaving her tied with John Nagle III. The two are vying for the second Republican slot on the November general election ballot in the two-seat Colchester district. Incumbent Pat Brennan finished first in the Republican primary on Aug. 14 with 476 votes.
Loranger ran as a write-in candidate for the Republican nod and appeared to have beaten Nagle by three votes on primary night, 177 to 174. However, during the recount, she slipped one vote behind with one “questionable” ballot undecided. On that ballot, a voter wrote in “Pamela Karr,” which Loranger convinced the court was the name she used for 35 years until she got married, according to her birth certificate and other documents she produced.
Nagle conceded no one else named “Pamela Karr” had actively campaigned.
The recount committee had been “unable to agree” how to count the “questionable” ballot, according to the ruling by Judge Robert Mello.
Brennan has been in the House since 2003 and will be seeking his ninth term.
Two Democrats, Selectman Herb Downing and Sarita Austin, a town planning commissioner, won their slots on the general election ballot unopposed in the primary.
Secretary of State Jim Condos said the court appeared to have made the right ruling and followed the law that rely on “the intent” of the voter. The runoff, Condos said, will produce a tight timeline for his office to have ballots ready for the general election in time to get them to the Colchester clerk by the Sept. 20 deadline, allowing enough time for overseas ballots.
The cost of the runoff will be borne largely by the state, Condos said.
Loranger, the co-owner of Preston Property Management and Leasing Services, ran on a campaign to reduce state spending and change the “convoluted” education funding formula.
Nagle operates Nagle’s Welding. He ran on a campaign to reduce state and education spending. He also told the Colchester Sun in a candidate questionnaire that he was a single father who had “dealt with the bias nature of child support enforcement and am owed over $107,000 in back child support.”
