HARTFORD – Responding to heated concerns and complaints from by a room full of residents, the Hartford Board of Selectmen on Thursday voted to seek legal counsel and possibly a court ruling to determine whether this week’s local election results are valid.
Selectmen Lee Holman and Laura Marston voted to consult with the Maine Municipal Association and take the matter before a judge, if necessary, to address a series of problems that occurred at the polls Tuesday.
Holman and election warden Arlene Nason agreed the town has been following precedent but not proper procedure when running elections. “That’s right, if nothing else this has been a real learning experience,” Holman said after listening to complaints about town clerk candidate Monica Mailly’s name being omitted from some ballots, the opening of the ballot box before the polls were closed and the absence of a lock on the box to begin with.
Resident Arthur Harvey suggested the town return to holding elections during the annual town meeting, adding that it may be difficult for a small town like Hartford to find properly trained election clerks and wardens.
“It seems to me we’re going to either go bankrupt or we’ll be holding the same elections two, three or four times,” he said.
Jason Rowe, who by present count lost the selectman race with 93 votes to Roland Downing’s 96, joined another man in disagreement. Hartford will need properly trained ballot clerks and election wardens to handle state and federal elections, he said. “And if a person cannot spend three or four hours to read the Maine Municipal Association rules, then we’ve got to take a serious look at this town.”
Rowe had filed a request for a recount of Tuesday’s votes. His wife, Diana Rowe, before the meeting, submitted a petition calling for a new election “due to the amount of inconsistencies and violations made during the voting procedure.”
Her petition outlined 13 allegations of error, including statements about ballots being read before the polls closed Tuesday, individuals entering the voting booths with more than one ballot, incorrect voting hours and problems with the swearing-in of moderator David Kraske.
Mailly, who apparently lost the election with 55 votes to a tie of 71 votes each for Lianne Bedard and Zoe Cowett, declared the entire election void because of Kraske’s swearing-in.
Entering the meeting and interrupting an individual to assume the floor, Mailly asked whether the “greeting and reading of return” had been performed before the voting began.
Verifying that it wasn’t, she said, “The town meeting was not opened properly and right there everything was an illegal act.”
After nearly an hour of discussion, Holman and Marston voted to seek legal counsel.
Jason Rowe’s recount request, Diana Rowe’s petition and a bulk mailing that was to notify voters of a change in the town meeting date all will be temporarily set aside. Neither Holman nor Marston made clear whether a town clerk runoff election set for May 31 will go forward.
In other business, the selectmen voted to reschedule the annual town meeting for a second time, moving the date from June 11, the same day as the Oxford County bicentennial celebration, to June 25.
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