Helping out the Westfield City Clerk’s office with the election results recount for the 2015 At Large City Council race were Westfield High School members of the Key Club, National Honor Society and Student Council. Pictured here are: front (l-r) Kelly Michonski, Abby Goyette and Eileen Fitzgerald. Back (l-r) Jackson Diltz, Eric Bone, Neal Bachmann and Zachary Medeiros.
WESTFIELD – Volunteers recounted nearly 8,000 ballots cast in the Nov.3 general election by hand to determine if At-large City Council Candidate John J. Beltrandi III can overcome the seven vote lead of At-large Councilor-elect Steve Dondley.
City Clerk Karen Fanion announced at 3:15 p.m. Saturday that while Beltrandi closed the gap, Dondley “prevailed by three votes.”
Ironically that was the same lead Dondley held over Beltrandi when the unofficial results of the electronic ballot machines after the close of the polls in November 3, 2015 general election.
“This is definitely a relief,” Dondley said following Fanion’s announcement. “I’d like to thank John for putting up a good fight. That’s what democracy is all about. I’d also like to thank the city workers and volunteers for their time and effort in this recount.
Beltrandi congratulated At-large City Councilor elect Dondley on the outcome of the recount.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s three votes or 300, a win is a win,” Beltrandi said follow the conclusion of the recount which started at 8 a.m. “I want to thank the City Hall officials and all of the volunteers who went above and beyond for this recount. They did an outstanding job.”
Beltrandi came in just three votes behind Dondley by the count of the city’s ballot machines on Nov. 3 election and then the Board of Registrars awarded an additional four of the provision ballots to Dondley. Provisional ballots are those the machines did not count for a number of reasons, such as the ink was too light for the machine to read it.
City officials decided to have the volunteers recount the ballots of the three wards with the largest voter turnouts. Volunteers had completed Ward 5 where 1,835 ballots were cast and Ward 4 (1.429 ballots cast) and were working on Ward 6 (1,297 ballot) by noon time Saturday.
The recount began with a hiccup about how the votes of the two candidates were being counted, a process that lead to a great many challenges, slowing the recount process. Both Dondley and Beltrandi commended the Board of Registrars for make an adjustment in the process.
“They changed the format which sped up the process,” Beltrandi said.
“We had some excitement in the morning when the system they were using was very error prone,” Dondley said. “They realized people were making mistakes, so they changed the way the talliers recorded the votes. Once that change was made is started going much more smoothly. They’re processing the larger wards in about an hour, so I think the smaller wards will go faster.”
The results of the recount were announced after all 7,967 ballots cast in the election were processed.
At-large Councilor David A. Flaherty said the outcome of the recount will have an influence on the composition, and actions, of the incoming City Council.
“If John had won it would change the dynamics of the council and could have changed who is elected president for the next year,” Flaherty said. “Right now (At-large Councilor Brent B.) Bean has seven votes with Dondley’s support, but that might not have happened if Beltrandi had won the recount.”
