SACO – A judge’s ruling in a disputed election has given Jeffrey W. Robinson a three-year seat on the school board, proving that a middle initial need not appear on the ballot.

The city’s tally of the Nov. 4 election showed that Robinson, with 231 votes, lost to Michel Ohayon, who had 282. Both were write-in candidates.

But Robinson said the city failed to credit him with 156 votes that didn’t count because his middle initial was not included.

City Clerk Lucette Pellerin noted that three people named Jeffrey Robinson lived in Jeffrey W. Robinson’s precinct and she couldn’t determine which of them should receive those 156 votes.

“Without a middle initial or a street address, I was not sure which individual they were voting for,” Pellerin said.

Robinson argued that he was the only Jeffrey Robinson who had declared as a candidate and that the disputed votes should be his.

He failed to persuade Pellerin, so the three-year position went to Ohayon. Robinson was seated on the board, but for the vacant one-year position.

Robinson took his case to court, where Superior Court Justice Paul Fritzsche ruled in his favor.

“To disallow those votes on the remote chance that a noncandidate ‘Jeff Robinson’ received 156 votes would result in a frustration of the will of the voters of Saco,” the judge concluded.

As a result of the ruling, Robinson’s 51-vote deficit is now an undisputed 105-vote margin of victory.

“What’s right is right,” Robinson said, explaining that he owed it to his supporters to appeal the outcome of the election. “Persistence and patience have paid off.”

Pellerin said she accepts the judge’s ruling. “I find this very helpful,” she said. “Now we know what the benchmark is. This is a clarification we needed since there were no other determinations or decisions on the books.”