The vote fell along party lines: Six Democrats and one Progressive for the recount, four Republicans against it. The full House is expected to vote next week.
“We want to make absolutely sure that the ballots in Orange House District 1 were indeed correctly counted and that the will of the voters is indeed carried forward,” Rep. Maida Townsend (D-South Burlington), chair of the House Government Operations Committee, said after the panel voted.
Rep. Ron Hubert (R-Milton), the committee vice chair, called it a partisan and unnecessary decision. “We’re going through this process because we have a sore loser,” he said.
After a court challenge, a judge certified Frenier the winner. He was sworn in to the legislature earlier this month.
Hatch Davis then turned to the legislature for one last challenge. She argued that there were discrepancies in the way the six towns in the district handled ballots.
Hatch Davis called Wednesday’s decision “a win,” even though the recount won’t include the handful of absentee ballots she questioned. The committee decided it would be impossible to determine which absentee ballots were incorrectly labeled defective — a key part of Hatch Davis’ argument.
Frenier and Hatch Davis both sat in on much of the committee’s debate over the course of s
“This is the third time these votes have been counted and there is a partisan odor in the air that should worry all Vermonters who cherish nonpartisan elections,” Frenier said.
The new recount could be fruitless. It would feature the same ballots as a November recount — which Hatch Davis lost — that was conducted at the Orange County Courthouse. Nonetheless, Hatch Davis said she’s happy for there to be another look. She has questioned whether the earlier recount followed proper procedures regarding the use of electronic tabulators.
“The outcome could be different,” she said.
It’s still unclear how a recount overseen by the legislature would be conducted, Townsend said. Her committee will decide those details if and when the House agrees with its recommendation, she said. The recount might be done both by hand and machine, Townsend said.
Either way, it’s a sham, the Vermont Republican Party said.
“This action reeks of Montpelier insider cronyism and sets an unacceptable precedent for future elections: If you hold a lopsided majority in the legislature and you don’t like the outcome of an election, you can use your political power to reverse the clear and decided will of the people,” party chair Dave Sunderland said in a statement.
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The real issue here is that the legislature needs to clarify the law to ensure that recounts across different towns are done using the same methods and standards. The current apples and oranges approach means that it might be done one way in one town, one way in another – different machines, hand counts, confusion over rejected ballots, etc can all create inconsistent results.
One of the great things about Vermont elections is that we always have paper ballots to fall back on to ensure an accurate count. We need to make sure that we are counting those using consistent methods in recount situations like this.
Maybe the legislature would be happier if we left all the voting to them.
I have counted votes in the town I live in for somewheres around 20 years. On my third town clerk. I find it very interesting when people make comments about fraud and miscounted ballots.
The people who have these concerns need to come count votes or work on an election and see how it works. It is an amazing process and I would telll you that the volunteers and town clerks doing the work want it to be done right, not how they feel the election should come out.
They have been counted enough, just move on.
Pete F I agree with you as I have had relatives and friends work counting ballots and work on the recounts.
This reeks of sore loser syndrome.
Or the good ole boy network that denied Hatch-Davis the election.
“Or the good ole boy network that denied Hatch-Davis the election.”
Please explain your evidence for this wild and vague accusation. Who are the “good ole boys”? How did they “deny” your favored candidate the election? Do your “good ole boys” include the Vermont courts, which already reviewed this election?
Or are you just channeling Donald Trump?