Brewer councilor won’t seek vote recount

BREWER – Satisfied that all his questions and concerns about local elections this year had been laid to rest, Councilor Bruce Johnson decided Friday to forgo a physical inspection of the ballots cast in the Nov. 7 local elections.

Johnson, a local businessman who last week narrowly lost his re-election bid in a five-way battle for two openings on the City Council, said that he would not request a recount, despite requests that he do so from more than 70 Brewer residents.

During a gathering Friday morning at the Brewer Auditorium, where residents vote and where the city’s ballots are stored under lock and key, Johnson said his written request this week for an inspection of the ballots had been prompted by questions raised to him by residents – concerns to which he was not immediately able to respond.

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 participated.

In his written request for the inspection, Johnson cited the close City Council race on Nov. 7, the unusually high number of absentee ballots cast and the need for assurance that the ballots were properly marked as among his reasons for wanting a closer look at the process before determining if a recount was warranted.

After receiving Johnson’s request, veteran City Clerk Arthur Verow scheduled the inspection for Friday and sent letters of notification to the five ward officials who signed the election returns and to the council candidates.

Under Maine law, Verow said, the affected candidates and ward officials may attend the inspection proceedings in person or be represented by legal counsel. On Friday, all of the ward officials attended, but only three of the five candidates – Johnson, Larry Doughty and Harold Parks – turned out.

During Friday’s gathering at the Brewer Auditorium, Verow answered Johnson’s many questions about the handling of absentee ballots, improperly marked ballots and about reports of a temporary problem with one of the rented voting machines used in this year’s election.

Some of the questions apparently stemmed from a change in election rules pertaining to absentee ballots. Candidates used to be allowed to carry, distribute and return actual ballots. Now, they are permitted only to handle applications for absentee ballots.

Other questions involved the use of voting machines. Johnson was contacted by residents concerned their votes weren’t counted because their ballots were fed into the voting machines upside down. Verow said that machines are designed to read ballots regardless of how they’re fed in. Verow also confirmed that one of voting machines did experience a temporary technical problem, but that once the problem was corrected, the ballots were reprocessed.

By all accounts, this year’s council election was indeed close.

According to official returns, the front-runner was Michael Celli, a first-time council candidate who nabbed 2,010 votes. The other seat went to Doughty, the controversial 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 candidate, lost his re-election bid by a mere 52 votes, with 1,861 votes.