Updated to fix sloppy language and to reflect more up-to-date information on actual write-ins.
This has to be Allison Sharma’s worst nightmare.
Chris Markiewicz won the Ward 4 ward race with 1122 votes, 152 more votes than the write-in total of 970. According to the city web site, Allison was the write-in choice in the ward councilor race on 944 ballots, giving Chris a 178 vote margin over Allison.
One concern all along has been that folks would write in Allison for the Ward 4 at-large race, not the ward race. And, there they are: 288 write-in votes in the Ward 4 at-large race. Not counting the Ward 4 at-large race, the next highest total of write-in votes for a single ward in an at-large race appears to be 40 write-in votes in Ward 6 in the Ward 6 at-large race. Something out of the ordinary is going on.
There appear to have been lots of confusion across the city for the Ward 4 race. There were 814 write-in votes in the Ward 4 at-large race. The next highest total was the Ward 6 at-large race with 161. And, Ward 6 seems to be an outlier. The next highest total of write-ins was Ward 8 at-large with 82. So 288 write-in votes for at-large candidates in Ward 4 is not normal.
The 586 write-in votes outside of Ward 4 were just wasted. Voters in the other wards were not eligible to vote in the Ward 4 ward race. Undoubtedly, some of the 288 voters in Ward 4 who wrote in on the at-large race wrote in on the Ward race, too, just to be sure. And, as commenter Lauren notes, many of the write-in votes are likely for Amy Mah Sangiolo. But, it seems highly likely that more than 152 voters were just confused and intended to write in Allison for Ward councilor.
That’s a shame.
Do we know whose names were submitted on all the write-ins?
I would suspect that many of the write-ins for Ward 4 at large are for Amy Sangiolo.
Is there a mechanism for a recall and to re-run the ward election in Ward 4? If indeed many of those write-ins for the At Large contest were for Sharma it would indeed be a great shame that the will of those voters will be ignored due to a confusing ballot. Democracy is undermined by backroom dealing, and this contest reeks of that.
Lauren,
Good point about Amy. It’ll be interesting to see the names and actual vote counts.
Looks like a supporting case for Charter reform.
x councilors-at-large without ward designations
x ward councilors
Today’s system is confusing.
Will Allison run again? I hope so. If so, here is something I am interested in. In this election she was endorsed by Josh Krintzman. Josh was “elected” last night (Newton-style election, that is).
Will Josh continue to endorse Allison or will he get sucked in to the Newton-insider-buddy-system where councilors never endorse challengers?
Yes, I was definitely afraid of this.
My volunteer at 4-2 last night stayed for the manual review of the ballots there, and confirmed that 69 of the write-ins under the Ward 4 at-large race were for me. I will be contacting city hall today to begin the process of a formal recount.
Rather than speculating that the results reveal a flawed election process, waiting for the actual results might be a helpful way to clarify the situation. What is gained by stirring speculation that “something is going on”?
I for one wrote in Amy Mah Sangiolo for Ward 4 at large. I know a number of other people did as well. There was an email circulating on Monday suggesting such a write-in.
Fact check: The unofficial ward 4 ward councilor election results were 1122 to 940, not 970. A number of the write-ins were not for Allison Sharma. See City web page for details.
“Rather than speculating that the results reveal a flawed election process, waiting for the actual results might be a helpful way to clarify the situation.”
Yup. Slow down Sean. Not helpful.
@Philip Wallas: When will Chris be back in town? While I’m not yet prepared to concede, I would like to congratulate him on his efforts.
Philip,
I’ve updated the post to incorporate the additional information we have this morning and to better distinguish between the write-in vote total and the write-ins for Allison.
Didn’t mean to suggest that it was a flawed process. Confusing, for sure. Apart from the maneuvering to insulate Chris from challengers, there is nothing untoward about the process. If, as it appears at least possible, the number of Ward 4 voters who wrote Allison in for the at-large race (and did not also write her in for ward councilor) is greater than the 174 vote difference between Chris and Allison, that would be a shame, because it meant that through their own confusion those voters won’t have their preference counted.
I’d like to point out a violation by folks handing out stickers. By law they cannot be handed out within 150 ft of the building entrance which was being done at Burr.
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elestkr/stkridx.htm
“Stickers may not be distributed inside the polling place, within the building in which the polling place is located, or less than 150 feet from the entrance to the polling place.”
I think we can all agree that this process of waiting to resign so your successor can be hand selected isn’t ideal. I would say this if Ted had done it, or anyone else who I liked on the council. Democracy dies in darkness folks. I don’t care if it was unintentional. The withdrawal date should be the same as the throw your hat in the ring date, and frankly a good councilor would make up their mind weeks before to allow their ward to actually have choices.
I hope Chris is challenged in the next election. If he wins, I’ll congratulate him, because he will have deserved it. Unlike this election. But as of right now, I hope his ward is angry and remembers the way this went down.
So does anyone know what the law is on the recount? I am betting that If there were 69 write ins in the wrong ballot position at just one polling place it is fairly likely that Allison Sharma got more votes. Can they be counted for her? I hope so, but does anyone know?
According to the link posted above, if the voter made a mistake in or omitted the candidate’s address, or if the voter failed to fill in the bubble next to the name they had written in, the vote would still be counted because it would be clear that the voter had intended to vote for that candidate. However, it doesn’t look like write-ins in the wrong spot will be: