The Rhode Island Board of Elections administered seven recounts Sept. 17 in response to candidate requests following the state primaries earlier this month. All recounts upheld primary results. Five races for seats in the General Assembly - from districts 32, 40, 58, 65 and 17 - were reviewed. Democratic primaries for the North Providence Town Council and Pawtucket Ward Committee were also reevaluated.
In accordance with Board of Elections regulations, eligible candidates seeking recounts were required to submit written requests by 4 p.m. the day following the election. State of Rhode Island General Laws outline that only candidates who lost with a "two hundred or less vote difference" are eligible for recounts.
Requests are differentiated into two categories, said Robert Kando, executive director of the Board of Elections.
In a race where the losing candidate was "trailing" by a certain percentage - a close vote margin that varies between races depending upon the number of candidates - the losing candidate may request a re-tabulation.
If and when a re-tabulation is determined necessary and is scheduled, sealed paper ballots are transported from the precinct of the election to the Board of Elections, where a complete recount is administered in front of the candidates. The ballots are fed into the tally machines, and the results from this process are final, Kando said.
Four races were formally re-tabulated this election cycle, including the highly-contested General Assembly race in District 58 between incumbent Rep. William San Bento, Jr., D-Pawtucket and North Providence, and Carlos Tobon. The race was tabulated on election night as a win for San Bento with a margin of only three votes. The recount administered by the Board of Elections verified San Bento's victory but determined an even narrower margin of only one vote.
Commissioners at the Board of Elections denied a request for a manual recount from Tobon's campaign Sept. 19.
State law only allows for one recount per race, Kando said. The Board determined there was not enough evidence in support of voter fraud or malice to justify an appeal.
In races where the margin does not meet the "close vote" requirement and does not exceed five percent of the total votes cast, candidates can request a "re-reading of the memory packs," Kando said.
Elections in Rhode Island use optical scan machines to tabulate paper ballots and record votes. Memory packs hold the aggregate results from each of these machines.
"The votes are going through a memory pack at each location," Kando said. "We plug (memory packs) into a machine and verify the numbers."
Two General Assembly races and a race for the Pawtucket Ward Committee qualified for memory-pack reviews this cycle. The results maintained election night counts.
Though the board allows recounts, the "accuracy (of the elections) is almost always verified," Kando said.
