Town of Gilford, New Hampshire
Minutes of Recounts Election Results
March 22, 2007
The original vote on March 13, 2007 ended with a tie between Terry Stewart and Dale Dormody for the third place Budget Committee Member. The tie was broken on Wednesday, March 14th at the Board of Selectman’s meeting. The Town Clerk, Denise Morrissette pulled Dormody’s name from the lot first and broke the tie, declaring Dormody as the winner. A request for a recount from Stewart was received on Thursday, March 15th. Morrissette set the date and time of the recount to be March 22, 2007 Gilford Town Hall at 2:00 p.m.
The second request for a recount was received on Friday, March 16th, 2007. The request for a recount of Article 10 (Bean Property) had the signatures of 11 voters from the Town’s checklist. Morrissette set the date and time of this recount to follow the first recount on March 22, 2007 at Gilford Town Hall. The information was sent as a news release to the three local newspapers (Gilford Steamer, The Citizen & The Daily Sun). Public notices were posted in the Town Clerk – Tax Collector’s lobby of the Gilford Town Hall; the Gilford Public Library; and on the Town of Gilford’s website (posted 3/20/07).
March 22, 2007 at 1:50 p.m. Morrissette and Mooney brought the 4 boxes of uncast ballots and 4 boxes of cast ballots to the lunchroom. The ballots have been kept sealed (since the 3/13/07 election) in the fireproof vault of the Clerk’s Office. Moderator Millham was in the lunchroom waiting for the recount board to arrive. Millham wanted 3 teams of 2 people for the first recount of the Budget Committee Member. Millham asked candidate Dormody if he had any objections to Deputy Mooney counting ballots to make it 3 teams. Dormody had no objections. Morrissette explained that Stewart had called the office this morning and expressed that he was out of town but that Bob Brent would be representing him at the recount. Morrissette also told Millham that she had Stewart’s cell
phone number if a call to Stewart would be appropriate. Millham agreed to call Stewart. A message was left on Stewart’s cell phone. Stewart returned the call a few minutes later stating that he had no objections to Mooney joining the recount.
The following people were present at the first recount:
Peter Millham, Moderator; Denise Morrissette, Town Clerk; Jennifer Mooney, Deputy Town Clerk; Alice Boucher, Selectman; Constance Grant, Selectman, Gustavo Benavides, Selectman; Dale Dormody, Candidate; Doug Lambert, Observer; Susan Greene, Observer; Bob Brent, Observer; Sarah, Gilford Steamer; James Mitchell, The Citizen.
The following people made an appearance at the first recount: Michael Kitch, Daily Sun (& photographer); Christian Kelley, Gilford Police Dept.; Evans Juris, Everett McLaughlin; Joseph Hoffman.
Millham instructed Morrissette to unseal all the boxes of ballots; including the uncast ballots. Boxes of cast ballots were emptied and separated by pulling out the Town’s white ballot marked 1 of 2 (the front side of this ballot included the races for town offices; the backside of this same ballot had Article 10 (Bean Property) listed on it). The ballots were double-checked to ensure all white ballots marked 1 of 2 were taken out. Teams were set up as follows:
Morrissette (looked at ballots) – Boucher (marked tally sheet)
Millham (looked at ballots) – Grant (marked tally sheet)
Mooney (looked at ballots) – Benavides (marked tally sheet)
Tally sheets were marked for each vote for Stewart & Dormody. The sheets were tallied with the following results:
Stewart 871 Dormody 879
The results of the recount concluded Dormody the winner.
The first recount ended at 4:45 p.m. and the second recount started:
The following people were present at the second recount:
Peter Millham, Moderator; Denise Morrissette, Town Clerk; Jennifer Mooney, Deputy Town Clerk; Alice Boucher, Selectman; Constance Grant, Selectman, Gustavo Benavides, Selectman; Everett McLaughlin, Observer; Sarah, Gilford Steamer; James Mitchell, The Citizen.
Moderator Millham instructed the Board to separate the ballots into Yes and No piles. Millham abstained from separating and counting the ballots. The ballots were put into piles of Yes’s and piles of No’s; blank votes were placed into a separate pile for the Moderator to double-check. The piles of Yes’s and No’s were then put into bundles of 25 ballots per bundle and stacked crisscrossed. The Board then double-checked to be sure there were 25 ballots in each Yes bundle and each No bundle. The Board made a few determinations of the intent of the voters on marking their ballots. An example of one of the ballots was that the ovals were filled in and then an X marked through the vote and a second choice made. Another ballot had very light marks in the oval through out the
whole ballot. A count of Yes bundles equaled 1,159 votes; a count of No bundles equaled 772 votes. The total numbers of ballots cast on Article 10 were 1,931. The Bond vote requires a 3/5-majority vote. To achieve this you must take the total ballots cast on the Article 1,931 x .60 = 1158.6
The results of the recount concluded the Article Passed.
The ballots were collected and placed into the boxes and sealed. The sealed ballots were taken to the downstairs vault for storage. The second recount concluded at 5:15 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Denise A. Morrissette
Town Clerk
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