BREAKING: Uncounted Grafton election ballots go to court, independent investigation called
Grafton Town Clerk Kandy Lavallee acknowledged the errors her office made in the June 23 town election, which resulted in 202 ballots from Precinct 2 being left out of the final count.
Town Counsel filed an emergency order in Worcester Superior Court Wednesday requesting a first count of those ballots, to be added to the election tally.
“We recognize that the integrity of the election is of the utmost importance,” Lavallee wrote in a news release. “We will work with town counsel to find a suitable independent organization to investigate and provide a report of the facts of the case to the community. We will implement recommendations from the organization to improve this process in future elections.”
The ballots, all from Precinct 2, were among the early votes cast in the election, which saw thousands opting to vote by mail to avoid lines during the COVID-19 pandemic. The official count notes 3,301 ballots cast.
Lavallee said the box of 202 sealed ballots had been secured in the vault “prior to, during, and since election day and the ballots remain sealed.”
While the votes could not change the results of the Select Board race, in which Mathew Often and Colleen Roy beat incumbents Donna Stock and Jennifer Thomas by a wide margin, the Proposition 2 1/2 override won by only 95 votes.
On Tuesday, Assistant Town Clerk Paul Cook was filing forms in the vault when he discovered the box and notified Lavallee, who inspected the box. She spoke with all staff to ascertain how the ballots were left behind and determined the unopened ballots had been placed in the box on top of the other boxes while efforts were underway to organize equipment and ballots by precinct for election day.
The clerk’s office had mailed out a record 1,855 ballots to voters who requested to vote early or absentee. Returned ballots were being stores in the same area of the vault where existing boxes of unused ballots were being held, causing staff to inadvertently overlook the box of completed ballots.
Lavallee also notified the Precinct 2 warden to notify her that ballots were not processed and contacted the Secretary of State Elections Division to alert it to the discovery of the unopened ballots and seek guidance.
Once the Superior Court order is issued, a small team will be assembled to open ballots and total the counts. The team will consist of the town clerk, election workers, wardens, and the Board of Registrars.
“For maximum transparency, the opening and counting of these ballots will be televised on the local cable access government channels, Verizon channel 33 and Charter channel 193,” Lavallee said. “This process will be similar to the tallying that occurs at the polls at the end of election day. The public is welcome to attend provided social distancing guidelines can be met. We will publish the date and time when we receive further guidance from the court.”
Lavallee said the clerk’s office will take the following steps to prevent a repeat of the incident:
- Five sections of the vault will be designated for returned ballots from each precinct for both early voting and absentee voting
- Each section will have color-coded boxes denoting early voting and absentee votes to match the precinct they are for
- On the morning of the election, boxes will be counted for each precinct prior to them leaving the vault to be transported to the precinct for ballots to be counted
- The boxes will be counted on arrival by separate staff to ensure the same number of boxes counted in the vault arrive at the precinct.
The Select Board has announced an emergency meeting Thursday at 2 p.m. to discuss the investigation. Lavallee is also holding a press conference at 5 p.m. via Zoom to take questions via the Q&A function in Zoom webinars.
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85492002339?pwd=a1RFnRDeXlobiYzdzJDSUhodFR0UT09
