By Kelly Morgan,Staff Writer

HARTFORD – An election already steeped in controversy became more contentious Tuesday when a candidate’s name was omitted from some ballots, and then a ballot box was opened before the polls closed.

In addition, the town must go to the polls again because one race ended in a tie.

There was a tie for town clerk with Lianne Bedard and incumbent Zoe Cowett each getting 71 votes. Candidate Monica Mailly got 55.

A special election will be held from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. May 31 to revote on town clerk. Roland Downing was elected selectman with 96 votes; Jason Rowe got 93. There were eight different write-in candidates.

Road Commissioner Alan “Bim” McNeil won re-election with 152 votes.

A total of 197 voters cast ballots. Results were announced early today.

One selectman said the ballot-box incident resulted from errors, not misconduct.

“There was no ill intent,” Selectman Lee Holman said Tuesday afternoon as she tried to explain how everything had unraveled due to a few simple mistakes.

Despite the fact that clerk candidate Mailly’s name had been omitted from a number of ballots and the ballot box was opened during polling hours, Holman said she was advised by a Maine Municipal Association attorney to proceed with the elections.

“Only the courts can declare any election invalid, no matter how much it’s screwed up,” Holman said she was told by Bill Livengood, who is listed on the association’s Web site as director of legal services.

When reached by phone Tuesday night, he said he has seen similar problems in small town elections, but unless there’s evidence of wrongdoing “courts don’t like to overturn an election.”

Holman said the trouble began shortly after the polls opened at noon. After voting at about 12:10 p.m., she said, she left the town hall and was met by two residents who said they had not seen Mailly’s name on the ballot.

After speaking with Town Clerk Cowett, also a candidate for town clerk, she learned some copies of the ballots made at the town office had not printed properly. Holman sent Cowett to the Sumner town office to use another copier, she said, then went to call the municipal association for advice.

Holman said she was talking with the municipal association when the ballot box was opened.

According to election warden and Deputy Town Clerk Betty Plumley, who said she had no previous experience monitoring elections, she was the one who decided to open the ballot box.

Twelve or 13 people had voted, she said. “I said, OK, well, let’s take those out because there was a name eliminated.”

Plumley stopped the elections and removed the ballots, which she still had in her possession late Tuesday afternoon. She and fellow election warden Arlene Nason then proceeded to try and contact everyone who had voted up to that point.

It turned out 12 people had voted, she said, and only three of the ballots had been missing Mailly’s name. By 3 p.m, seven of the initial 12 voters had returned to cast new ballots.

“It was an effort to be fair and to try and do the right thing,” Plumley said of her decision to open the ballot box.

Nason said that of the more than 880 ballots printed, 81 were missing Mailly’s name.

Holman, after learning the ballot box had been opened, spoke with Livengood a second time. As he had said during their first conversation, she said, “He told me, you must continue with this election.”

Tuesday’s election already was controversial, in part due to tensions between Mailly and candidate Lianne Bedard, the town’s animal control officer and a former deputy town clerk under Mailly.

Mailly resigned from her post Nov. 9, just weeks after Bedard submitted a petition to the town office asking to change the position of town clerk from being appointed to elected.

Neither Mailly nor Bedard could be reached for comment Tuesday.

Linda (Rowe) Porter, whose son Jason Rowe was running for selectman, said she voted “under protest” Tuesday. Once the ballot box is locked, she said, it’s supposed to stay locked. “I think it’s very unfair,” she said, adding that she is more concerned for Bedard, Cowett and Mailly than her son.

Bob Perry, who like Porter is a former Hartford selectman, said he was at the town hall when the ballot box was opened.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes because I worked on a good many elections and I know it’s something that shouldn’t be done,” he said.