LEBANON — A hat will be used to help fill the fourth vacancy on the Lebanon School Board.
School and city officials will meet Thursday morning at City Hall to determine the victor of a tied election result for the School Board between Jessica Saturley-Hall and John D’Entremont. Each candidate received 560 votes at Town Meeting on Tuesday.
According to New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan, the tie between Saturley-Hall and D’Entremont will be broken with a “tiebreaker event.”
“That can be drawing straws. … It could be pulling cards from a playing card deck, high card wins, a flip of a coin. Something that’s fair and acceptable to both candidates, giving them an equal chance to win,” Scanlan said in a phone interview.
After a winner is declared, the losing candidate can ask for a recount.
“If the results are the same, then the candidate who won the tiebreaker is the winning candidate. If the winning candidate from the tiebreaker declines to take the position, then a vacancy is created and then the vacancy would be filled by the appointing authority until the next election,” Scanlan said. “It is not uncommon. Typically there is one or two tie votes after Town Meeting somewhere in the state after the election.”
Newly elected Lebanon School Clerk Dianne Estes said officials will draw a candidate’s name from a hat to break the tie.
Superintendent Joanne Roberts told the Valley News that neither candidate will attend the Thursday drawing due to work commitments. New Hampshire statute for tiebreakers states that attendance by the candidates is optional.
Saturley-Hall and D’Entremont did not respond by press time to phone and email requests for comment.
In a tight four-way race for three three-year terms on the School Board, voters elected Kevin Schutz (591 votes) and Tia Winter (574). Saturley-Hall and D’Entremont each received 560 votes.
In a two-way race for one two-year seat, Wendy Hall defeated Blendon Salls, 578-252.
Voters approved all warrant articles on both city and school ballots.
Voters approved a school operating budget of $51.1 million, which was up from last year’s $50.5 million, as well as new contracts with the Lebanon Support Staff Association, the Lebanon Administrative Group and the Lebanon School District Administrative Assistants’ Association.
On the city ballot, Lebanon voters supported removing gender-specific pronouns from some sections of the City Charter and replacing them with gender-neutral pronouns and also supported the playing of bingo and the sale of Lucky 7 tickets in the city.
They also approved four zoning amendments: allowing cottage developments by conditional use permit; modifying the density and standards required of manufactured housing developments; changing an accessory use to a single-family home from a special exception to a permitted use in the RL-3 District; and allowing an accessory dwelling unit for an owner-occupied two-family dwelling.
Elected officials:
Number of voters: 323
Number on checklist: 3,256
City Council, Wa rd One: Douglas Whittlesey
City Council, Ward Two: Devin Wilkie
City Council: Ward Three: Clifton Below
City Council, At-Large: Karen Liot Hill
Library Board of Trustees: Francis Oscadal
Library Board of Trustees: Kim Rheinlander
Library Board of Trustees: Ann Sharfstein
Ward One Supervisor of Checklist: Eileen Taylor
Ward One Supervisor of Checklist: vacant
Ward One Supervisor of Checklist: vacant
Ward Two Supervisor of Checklist: Valentina Baldwin
Ward Two Supervisor of Checklist: Ruth Cioffredi
Ward Two Supervisor of Checklist: Kathy Harrington
Ward Three Supervisor of Checklist: Heidi Conner
Ward Three Supervisor of Checklist: Kim Rheinlander
Ward Three Supervisor of Checklist: Karen Sheehan
Ward One Moderator: vacant
Ward Two Moderator: Crystallee Newton
Ward Three Moderator: Matthew Fay
Ward One Clerk: vacant
Ward Two Clerk: Susan Desrosiers
Ward Three Clerk: Anne MacEwan