DTC Holds Recount in Contested Election

Following Tuesday's well-attended Democratic Town Committee caucus, a recount of the Fifth District's (Clintonville) ballots took place late this week. 

According to a post on the North Haven Way, the DTC sent out the following email to constituents under the subject line: "5th District Recount Official: Carole Criscuolo is on the DTC, Lillian Viele is not."

The email on the site reads:

 

Dear Fellow Democrats, 

It was a pleasure to see so many of you at the caucus this past week and it was also great to see so many people participating. As you know, the DTC seats in the fifth district were contested and ballots were cast and counted. Unfortunately, there was an error in the original count. Today, Walt Spader (Secretary of the entire DTC caucus), Jennie Caldwell (Secretary of the 5th district caucus), and myself (Chair of the 5th district caucus) gathered together to recount the ballots.

In the original count, Carole had 9 votes, Lillian had 10 votes, and Theresa Ranciato-Viele had 11 votes. The recount confirmed that Carole had 9 votes; however it also determined that Lillian had only 8 votes and Theresa had 12 votes. Apparently, there was a flip flop between voters for Lillian and Theresa and, after the recount, Carole had more votes that Lillian qualifying her for membership on the Democratic Town Committee. Among the nominees for the fifth district, there were four sets of people with the same surname and there was some mistakes made due to the fact that some people spelled Theresa's name "Theresa Viele" but others spelled it "Theresa Ranciato-Viele"--thus a vote for Theresa Viele was mistakenly counted as a vote for Lillian Viele. In the chaotic atmosphere of the caucus, we were working quickly under time constraints, making such a mistake possible. It was good to have an opportunity to recount the votes in peace and quiet after all the dust settled.

I believe Walt did a very good job maintaining the ballots and assisting Jennie and I in the recount. I can personally attest that the votes have now been counted accurately and honestly. 

Best Wishes,

Sarah Aziz

 

New members of the DTC are expected to be seated in March.