Rooney’s Victory In District 4 Council Race Affirmed By Recount

Pamela Rooney will begin serving on the Town Council in January after having her successful bid for a District 4 seat confirmed in a recount on November 23, 2021. The final results were as follows:

Precinct 5 /Precinct 9 /District 4 TOTAL

Ross 237 /237 /474

Rooney 205 /274 /479

Lopes 295/ 300 /595

Blank 215/ 207/ 422

Total Ballots 476 /509 /985

Incumbent Evan Ross filed for the recount and produced the requisite 10 signatures from each of Precincts 5 and 9. This required the Board of Registrars to schedule a recount for the District 4 Councilor race.

By the time the recount took place on Tuesday, November 23, Rooney’s lead had expanded from three voters on election night to six votes. A combination of provisional, auxiliary, overseas, and hand counted ballots raised the town-wide voter turnout by 81 total voters since Election Day on November 2; 46 of those additional ballots were cast in District 4.

Attending the recount was Town Clerk Susan Audette, Attorney Lauren Goldberg from KP Law (the law firm that represents the Town), Demetria Shabazz, Jacqueline Gardner, and Jaime Wagner from the Board of Registrars, nine poll workers, two Town staff who served as runners to assist in the process, and nine observers for Rooney and four for Ross. Rooney was also present but Ross was not. Members of the public were permitted to be present in the room but were cordoned off from these participants.

Four teams of poll workers read out and tallied the votes cast for District 4 Councilor on 984 ballots in batches of 50. The Board of Registrars were convened to serve as a quasi-judicial panel in the case of objections but there were none. They also confirmed the Clerk’s ruling that one additional provisional ballot from Precinct 5 be counted (the Registry of Motor Vehicles in Greenfield had failed to file that voter’s registration originally). They also confirmed the Clerk’s ruling to reject two overseas ballots: one did not have the required postmark and the other arrived too late. Several spoiled ballots were also confirmed by the Board. In these cases, the voters themselves had requested that their ballots be discounted and they received a second ballot which was counted. 

The Board of Registrars certified the official election results confirming wins for both Rooney and Lopes.