After losing the race for an at-large seat on the Freeport Town Council by six votes at the Nov. 4 election, incumbent candidate Rich DeGrandpre has requested a recount.

The request came in writing on Nov. 6, said Freeport Town Clerk Tracey Stevens, and the recount will take place Monday, starting at 8 a.m., at the Freeport Town Hall.

Town council at-large candidate William Rixon beat DeGrandpre, who has served on the town council for 12 years, 2,076-2,070. There were also 17 write-ins on the ballot and 547 blanks.

Rixon was unreachable Wednesday and Thursday for comment.

“For me it came down to two things,” said DeGrandpre in a Thursday phone interview with The Times Record. “It’s hard for me to believe that 547 people went all the way down to Holbrook Street to the Freeport High School gymnasium to participate in the election and then decided not to cast a vote for either Bill or me.”

The voting machines used at the gubernatorial election have only been used for two elections previously, said DeGrandpre, who is skeptical about how the machines tally ballots that are not clearly marked.

“We know for a fact that they count big black marks really well,” said DeGrandpre. “We don’t know how well they count Xs, or check marks, or circling a candidate’s name, and we still get a lot of ballots that way.

“If Bill won, that’s OK, we’ll move on,” he said, “but it’s unusual to have so many blanks for a contested race.”

After receiving more than a dozen calls from constituents who were surprised by the election results, DeGrandpre said he called Stevens to request more information about the recount process before determining to request a recount.

“The candidates have to supply the counters,” said Stevens, noting that the recount is done by hand. “There are going to be six teams and each team will have three people — one person for one candidate, one person for the other candidate and the third is a recount assistant.”

Recount assistants are hired by the town and paid an hourly wage, said Stevens, and typically are election clerks that helped on Election Day. They cannot be elected officials or town employees, she said.

“We have to sort 4,700 ballots and put them into lots of 50,” said Stevens. “The assistants bring the lots to the counters and answer questions about rules to determine voter intent.”

If a voter circled a candidate’s name instead of filling in the circle to the left of the candidate’s name on the ballot, a voting machine would not register that as a vote for the candidate, said DeGrandpre. During a hand recount, however, a candidate’s name circled would be considered a vote for that candidate.

If there are enough disputed ballots — ballots where a vote for a candidate is not clearly registered — to tip the results of the election in the losing candidate’s favor, said Stevens, the affected candidate can appeal the results to the Maine Supreme Court.

While Stevens has assisted with a state-level election recount, she said this is the first recount she has organized for Freeport.

“Our job really is getting the town’s chores done, that’s what we’re elected to do,” said DeGrandpre of being town councilor. “Whatever the result, I have truly enjoyed this work and I will continue to be involved in the town’s operations.”

rgargiulo@timesrecord.com

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