Chelsea
“The recount currently underway has created a number of issues that do not provide confidence in the outcome. The voters of the district and the candidates deserve certainty which the process has not yet delivered,” Hatch Davis, a five-term lawmaker, said in a Dec. 1 motion filed in Vermont Superior Court in Chelsea.
Superior Court Judge Timothy Tomasi earlier last week had accepted a certified recount for the two-seat district which showed Chelsea Republican Bob Frenier with 1,850 votes, six more than Davis’ total of 1,844. State Rep. Rodney Graham, R-Williamstown, was the top vote-getter, and will keep his seat.
The Orange 1 House district includes the towns of Chelsea, Vershire, Corinth, Washington, Williamstown and Orange, and Election Day results initially showed Frenier with an eight-vote lead.
Davis’ motion said it was “not clear” that a tabulator used in the recount had “accurately counted all ballots,” noting, for instance, that ballots from Vershire that had been folded jammed the tabulator several times during an initial recount last month.
Hatch Davis also said the tabulator “malfunctioned at one point causing write-ins and non-write-in ballots to be mixed together.”
“Given these concerns I request an evidentiary hearing and hope you might ask for a complete recount done by hand,” she wrote.
Frenier said he had only received a copy of his opponent’s motion on Monday afternoon and planned to respond. He also noted that a change in state law in 2014 may rule out a hand recount.
“People who don’t understand the simple technology of a tabulator might feel better if ballots are counted by hand, but the (new Vermont) law requires a tabulator be used in recounts because they are demonstrably more accurate,” Frenier said via email.
A court clerk said no hearing has been set yet on Davis’ motion.
John Gregg can be reached at 603-727-3217 or jgregg@vnews.com.