Allison Sharma, who ran a write in campaign against Chris Markiewicz for the Ward 4 City Council seat write on her Facebook page…
I want to express a heartfelt and deep thank you to residents of Ward 4 who have done so much for my campaign for Ward Councilor over the last few months. You have knocked doors, held signs, hosted events and done so much more. I decided to run because I believed then as I do now that voters in Ward 4 should be given the opportunity to choose their representative. Many of you have asked how many voters wrote me in, however there is some uncertainty about the write-in tally. For this reason, I will be submitting a request for a recount. It is important that we fully understand the results and that we are sure that the intent of every voter has been accurately counted. Once again, I want to thank you all for believing in me and for standing by me as this process plays out.
The integrity of the voting system is of paramount importance. No harm in recounting votes in response to any candidate’s request, write-in or otherwise. But I don’t want to see this devolve into a debate about the “intent of every voter.”
If a voter used the wrong ballot spot to write-in a vote for Allison Sharma, that vote should not count. I genuinely admire what Allison did by stepping up to run a write-in campaign. However, it was the burden of Allison’s situation to make sure voters understood the correct way to cast a write-in vote for her. If they wrote her name in the wrong place that vote should not count.
There is absolutely no evidence that there was a mistake in the way the votes were counted. This was not a close election. Yes, many voters probably voted incorrectly, but a recount is not going to change that. If Allison runs again (which I hope she does) this won’t be an issue next time.
Allison’s an up and coming leader in the community. A write-in campaign is extremely difficult to coordinate and she did an admirable job in a short period of time. She has a bright future in Newton!
Allison really did an incredible job with her campaign. Truly amazing since write-ins are so tough. She has a ton of support in the ward.
Allison can and should pursue a recount to ensure all the votes are counted. She is not questioning the integrity of the voting process in Newton. Specifically at issue is whether or not people wrote her in for ward councilor but did not fill in the bubble on the ballot. Those would be valid votes for Allison that would not register on the machines and so have not yet been counted – they need to be tallied by hand.
On top of that, if people mistakenly wrote her in for at-large Councilor also, and those votes ends up giving her a win in terms of the “popular vote”, it will be interesting to see how that is handled.
Regardless, this was a campaign for the Newton history books.
What’s the counting process for write-ins? If counted by hand, are there arbiters who represent both candidates? How many times are votes tallied? I’d also like to know the recounting process. I’m happy with a recount if there seems to be a discrepancy.
4
It having been a full week since the election, I’m befuddled as to why one race in one ward (4) has not yet been recounted; I’d guess it should take about an hour, 2 at the most. Where has the election committee, the counters, and the ballots been all this time?