Easthampton petitioners trigger override vote recount

Voters lined up outside of City Hall and the polls at Easthampton High School to express support both ways for the city’s special election override vote, which ended up passing by a 3,312-3,073 vote.
Reminder Publishing file photo

EASTHAMPTON — The city will officially hold a recount of votes from the June 9 special election override after petitioners collected enough signatures to trigger such a situation.

The Board of Registrars is set to meet sometime during the week of June 22 to set a date for the recount. As of press time, a meeting date for the registrars had not yet been set.

The $6.9 million Proposition 2½ override passed through a 3,312-3,073 vote, but days after the special city election, claims of issues with the distribution, handling, and processing of mail-in ballots for said election have been made. A formal effort to trigger a recount was successful after petitioners collected at least 10 signatures from registered voters in each of the city’s five precincts. These signatures were submitted on June 17 and were certified the following day by the City Clerk’s office.

Leading this effort are members of the Easthampton Republican Committee and Easthampton Active Citizens, who requested a hand count of all ballots cast in an effort to ensure transparency after claims were made that various residents received empty mail-in ballots that were missing the ballot itself or didn’t receive any at all leading up to election day.

Republican Committee Chair Cathy Wauczinski, who also co-founded Easthampton Active Citizens, led the “Vote No” Campaign and spearheaded the effort to collect the signatures that triggered the recount. Wauczinski told Reminder Publishing the organizations want a recount to make sure the voting process is fundamentally sound and for transparency in the election process after hearing these claims were made.

“I think the biggest reason for the recount is the fact that there are people who are eligible voters who did not get an opportunity to vote. These individuals raised a concern with me, saying ‘I have no idea if my vote was counted or not,’” said Wauczinski. “Was anybody denied the opportunity to vote?”

She said that she believes the mistake of empty mail-in ballots comes from human error, but she added that if people did not get an opportunity to vote because of human error, then the results of the election could be invalid.

“The reality is there’s probably going to be some ‘yes’ votes from the people who didn’t get a chance to vote with those mail-in ballots not being present, but everybody should have the opportunity to vote if they wanted to, regardless of whether the nos or the yeses win in the end. If there’s a problem with the process and people didn’t get an opportunity to cast their votes, then that needs to be fixed,” said Wauczinski.

City Clerk Mary Ann Giza confirmed to Reminder Publishing that there was an error on the city’s part where some mail-in ballots sent out did not include the ballot itself, but she could not confirm the total number of these ballots. Still, “about nine” total residents called the clerk’s office to report empty envelopes, and those claims were indeed validated. She added that all residents who called to report they were sent an empty envelope were then sent a new mail-in ballot leading to the special election, which is what the process calls for.

For those who claim they never received any ballot, Giza said that may be because each new year, voters must once again sign up to receive the mail-in ballot.

Giza said the clerk’s office must account for every mailed ballot through a state computer system, the date it was sent and if it was received. If a person claimed they did not receive a ballot, then that is also accounted for, and a new one is sent out to the voter.

Giza said the clerk’s office sent a new ballot to all of the voters who reported empty envelopes. The errors that did occur on the city’s end have already been reported to the state, according to Giza.

Giza said that there needs to be a three-day notice of the recount following the certification of signatures before it can take place. She said that a date for the recount should be set sometime in the coming days, and it will be open to the public.

Wauczinski said she led the “vote no” campaign because there was concern that those in the community on fixed incomes or with financial restraints may not be able to withstand the hike in property taxes from the passed override.

“I think there are a lot of people who can’t afford another tax increase and will be forced to sell their homes. Some of these people have been generational Easthampton residents, and they’ll be forced to leave, and there are some residents who can’t afford the increase but for lots of reasons don’t want to or can’t leave,” she added.