BURLINGTON — After a recount, city leaders on Monday certified independent Ali Dieng as the winner of the Ward 7 race in last week’s Town Meeting Day election.
City councilors and Democratic Mayor Miro Weinberger declared that Dieng, an incumbent, captured 795 votes to Democrat Aleczander Stith’s 793 votes in the New North End precinct, matching what officials reported on election night. Olivia Taylor, another independent candidate in the election, collected 89 votes.
Stith asked for a recount the day after the election, citing the close result. While recounts are typically handled by the city’s “board of civil authority” — which consists of the City Council and mayor — the board decided last week that election officials from precincts besides Ward 7 would conduct the process instead.
Those election officials spent roughly seven hours Monday counting the Ward 7 ballots by hand, then feeding them into a tabulator machine. During the hand count, officials found six ballots that had irregular markings, and set them aside as “disputed.”
The Board of Civil Authority then interpreted the markings on each of the ballots, unanimously finding that one of them was for Stith and five of them were “overvotes,” meaning the voter signaled support for more than one candidate.
Dieng recused himself from interpreting the ballots. Councilors Jack Hanson, P-East District, Zoraya Hightower, P-Ward 1, and Jane Stromberg, P-Ward 8, were absent.
Even with Monday’s certification, Stith could still appeal Dieng’s win in court.
Besides the six disputed ballots, election officials deemed seven absentee ballots “spoiled” on election day. Stith and his attorney, former Democratic city councilor Ed Adrian, argued those seven ballots should be counted.
When absentee ballots are deemed spoiled — because the voter did not sign their ballot, for instance — state law requires the city to try to get the voter to fix their error, or “cure” it. Sarah Montgomery, an associate city clerk, told the Board of Civil Authority that officials did not hear back from voters they contacted.
Stith has five days to appeal the results in Vermont Superior Court, but has not announced whether he will do so. While Adrian raised the issue of spoiled ballots to city councilors in a Sunday night memo, an appeal by Stith would not necessarily focus on just that question, Adrian told VTDigger.
“It’s always good to get a couple of days breathing room to get a broader picture perspective,” Adrian said.
City Attorney Dan Richardson said that the spoiled ballots should not be counted because the city followed the right steps to try to cure them.
When asked about the potential of Stith appealing the election results, attorney John Franco, who’s representing Dieng, told VTDigger: “They have a right to do that.”
The Ward 7 polling place — which is located at the Robert Miller Community and Recreation Center — was closed for about a half-hour on the morning of election day because of a nearby bank robbery. Ward 7 Clerk Thomas Fleury said that he saw roughly five people try to enter the building and vote during that period, though they were turned away because the doors were locked.
“I could not identify any of these potential voters nor do I know if any returned to vote later in the day or not,” Fleury told VTDigger in an email.
The Miller Center was locked down because it sometimes serves as a child care facility, according to a police department press release about the incident. After hearing about the lockdown, acting Police Chief Jon Murad went to the site to reopen it because it was a polling place, the release said.
No other polling places were locked down on election day because of the bank robbery.
As soon as the certified election results were read aloud Monday, Dieng — who often serves as a swing vote between the council’s Democrats and Progressives — waved two peace signs. Stith walked across the room and shook his opponent’s hand.
When asked about the two-vote victory, Dieng attributed the near-loss to his status as an independent facing two candidates that received nominations from major parties.
Dieng also said he thought Stith’s recount request was fair, and was happy that the recount reached the same conclusion as the initial results.
“This whole process gave me a sense of confidence in our elections,” he said.
Clarification: An earlier version of this story understated the number of city councilors who were absent from Monday’s recount.
