Councilor seeks ballot inspection

BREWER – Councilor Bruce Johnson, one of five candidates in the Nov. 7 local elections, has issued a written request for an inspection of the ballots.

The inspection has been scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday at the Brewer Auditorium, according to City Clerk Arthur Verow.

In a memorandum issued early Tuesday evening, Johnson cited the close City Council race last week, the unusually high number of absentee ballots cast and the need for assurance that the ballots were properly marked as among his reasons for requesting the inspection.

“This does not constitute a recount, rather it is a step that will be taken in order to determine whether a recount will be necessary,” Johnson wrote.

According to Verow, letters of notification were sent Wednesday to the five ward officials who signed the election returns; Michael Celli and Larry Doughty, the apparent winners of the two council positions available this year; and Harold Parks and Jerry Hudson, who also ran in last week’s election.

Under Maine law, Verow said, the affected candidates and ward officials may attend the inspection proceedings in person or be represented by legal counsel.

This year’s council election was indeed close.

According to official returns, the front-runner was Celli, a first-time council candidate and the city’s planning board chairman, who nabbed 2,010 votes. The other seat went to Doughty, a former city councilor who made his way back onto the council with 1,913 votes after having lost re-election bids last year and the year before. Johnson, the incumbent council candidate, lost his re-election bid by a mere 52 votes, with a total of 1,861 ballots cast in his name.

According to city election officials, 507 absentee ballots were cast in Brewer last week, a total somewhat higher than the typical number. Between 350 and 400 residents submitted absentee ballots during the last presidential election four years ago.

Official returns show that 5,085 – or 83 percent – of Brewer’s 6,152 registered voters took part in local elections last week.

Johnson said Wednesday that after last week’s election, he heard from several residents asking if he planned to ask for a recount but that he wasn’t inclined to do so. He said he decided that a closer look at the ballots might be warranted after receiving a telephone call from a voter who cast an absentee ballot and later learned that some of the claims made by Doughty in his campaign literature had been discounted by city officials.

“I guess I wanted the opportunity to inspect the ballots,” Johnson said. “I don’t know that it will make any big difference in the end, but I guess I owe it to people to go at least that far.”

Doughty, who learned of the inspection Wednesday, had this to say: “Poor Bruce. He just finds the defeat hard to take. He must think he’s in Palm Beach.”

Doughty observed that he did not ask for an inspection or recount after having lost his attempts to win a council spot by 133 votes last year and by 129 votes the year before.