Nov 21, 2007
First out, then in
Vote recount changes results for Greenwich RTM candidate
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While the new optical scan voting machines won raves from poll station managers on Election Day, a machine error nearly cost a newly elected Representative Town Meeting (RTM) member his seat.
When results became official in the RTM races on Nov. 6, it initially appeared that Randall Smith from District 5 in Riverside had not been elected. With a vote total of 424, he was one of three candidates from the district not to be elected to the 19 seats District 5 has on RTM. However, a recount in the district found that votes that had been cast for him had mistakenly been given to write-in candidates by the machines.
By the time the hand recount was done, Mr. Smith had enough votes to make it and will begin his first term next month. This was the first year the optical scan machines were used in Connecticut and now Mr. Smith’s hoping for the state to make improvements to keep the problem from repeating.
Since this was his first run for RTM and Mr. Smith is relatively new to Greenwich — his family moved to town two years ago — he went into the race without expectations. District 5 was one of the more competitive districts, with 22 candidates running for 19 spots.
“I haven’t lived here as long as some of the other candidates running so I went in hoping I’d win, but I wasn’t going to be surprised if I lost,” Mr. Smith said. “I wasn’t shocked, but I was disappointed. I had put a lot of work into running and I was left thinking that maybe if I’d just knocked on a few more doors it would have put me over the top.”
Under the impression that he lost, Mr. Smith wasn’t about to give up his RTM ambitions. He said he was already planning to run again in two years when all seats were up for re-election, but then a call came telling him his chance to serve might be a lot sooner than he thought.
Mr. Smith said he gave a lot of the credit to the work of Mary Ferry, District 5’s chairwoman. Ms. Ferry told the Post that when the polls closed on Election Day, she went to District 5’s polling station at Riverside School to copy down the results. It was there that she first noticed the high number of votes going to write-in candidates, which struck her as unusual since there were no officially registered write-in candidates in the district race.
Ms. Ferry called the town’s Registrar of Voters office, which set the recount wheels in motion.
Republican Registrar of Voters Veronica Musca could not be reached for comment before press time. Derek Flap, a spokesman for the Connecticut Secretary of the State’s Office, reported no other complaints in the state of machines acting in this manner.
The idea that the election results were not quite what they initially seemed wasn’t what Mr. Smith was expecting to hear when he got the call about the situation.
“I was very surprised to hear this and I wanted to know what happened,” he said. “They told me about the scanners and how the votes were given to the wrong candidates and that they were going to do a recount because it looked like I was tied with someone else. I still hadn’t won at this point, so this was a bit of a roller coaster ride for me and my family. First we’d lost. Then it looked like we had actually tied, and then it turned out we won.
“I hadn’t wanted to get too excited when I first heard about the recount, but it was a great feeling when I got the call that I actually won. We definitely ran the whole gamut of emotions with this, but it’s exciting to win and I’m really looking forward to being able to serve the town.”
With the recount, Mr. Smith was able to gain 20 new votes to be elected to the RTM, edging him over fellow first-time candidate Thomas Wood.
Mr. Wood did not return calls for comment.
Mr. Smith, a North Carolina native, said he and his wife, along with their two children, moved to town after looking at every place close to Manhattan, N.Y., for a place to live. They looked throughout the tri-state area, but Mr. Smith said he and his wife knew Greenwich was the right place as soon as they saw it.
“We saw the excellent schools and the sense of community that exists here,” he said. “It’s a great place to raise a family and I wanted to be a part of that. That’s why I wanted to be a part of RTM. I wanted to be a contributing member of this community and this was a great chance.
“I want to make sure Riverside retains what it has. I’m not someone who believes Greenwich has a lot of problems and I’m not on any crusade to change things. I just want to make sure my neighborhood and the town as a whole stays a great place to raise a family.”
As an RTM member, Mr. Smith said he expects to initially focus on pedestrian safety. He says his Lockwood Road neighborhood is “like Talladega” because of all the speeding drivers who make it unsafe for people to walk.
Preventing problems
Mr. Flap said there will be an audit of 70 precincts, including Greenwich, throughout the state to see how the machines worked. He said the optical scanner memory cards would also be examined, just as they were before the election, to make sure there was no tampering or programming errors.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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