Mayor’s contest takes center stage in Lynn

LYNN – The battle to decide who will be sworn in as mayor in January shifts from the ballot box to the City Hall auditorium’s stage today as election workers closely watched by observers for Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. and Mayor-elect Judith Flanagan Kennedy recount 16,320 ballots cast in the Nov. 3 election.Kennedy won the mayor’s race by 27 votes (8,043 to 8,016). There were 216 ballots cast in the election that did not select a choice for mayor.The recount will center on seven tables set up on the stage – one for each of the city’s wards – where ballots will be recounted in lots of 50.City Clerk Mary Audley plans to start the recount at 9 a.m. and hopes to complete it Wednesday even if counters and observers must labor into the evening hours.The recount is open to the public who can view it from auditorium seats. Audley said the tabulation will cost the city $6,000, more if the count drags into Thursday.The process begins with Audley unlocking a room next to her office where the ballots, Accu-Vote counting machines and computer memory cards from the machines have been stored since election night. She will give attorneys for Clancy and Kennedy the opportunity to view the secured items.”No one has been in that room since the election. No one has viewed the ballots. The ballot boxes have not been opened,” Audley said Wednesday.Following the viewing, the ballots and equipment will be taken to the Veterans Memorial Auditorium stage where votes for mayor on each ballot will be read beginning with the first precinct in each ward. As the vote is read, a city recorder will tally the vote. As the counts are completed, runners will carry the tally sheets to a tabulating table where other counters will record the tallies.Clancy and Kennedy have each retained veteran attorneys well versed in recounts to represent their interests during the recount. Haskell Kassler for Clancy and William McDermott for Kennedy will act as field generals for their clients, supervising observers stationed at each counting table and, when they see fit, challenging ballot tallies.”If there is a challenge, the attorneys will try to agree on the vote. If there is no agreement, a runner will take the ballot to the Election Commission for review,” Audley said.If the lawyers cannot reach an agreement, the challenged ballot will be reviewed by the four city election commissioners who will be present during the recount and rule on the voter’s intent. If they make a ruling, the vote will be recorded but the ballot, if one of the attorneys continues to challenge it, will be set aside in a sealed envelope for potential review by a judge.Kassler said his efforts on Clancy’s behalf will focus on absentee and blank ballots. Absentee ballots will be checked to ensure they were received on time by the city and ballots counted as blanks will be inspected to see if marks on them indicate a vote for a candidate.”There are more than enough to tip the election,” Kassler said, acknowledging that recent optical scan recounts have not favored candidates initiating recounts.Challenged ballots, 102 to be precise, were the last impediment Clancy faced 19 years ago when former state Rep. Thomas W. McGee went to court in a last-ditch bid to hold onto his West Lynn-Nahant legislative seat.McGee won the Democratic primary election for his seat but lost a recount challenge to Clancy who went on to succeed McGee in the Massachusetts House. Kassler represented Clancy throughout the recount and McDermott was a member of McGee’s legal team.The 1990 recount focused on punch card ballot no longer used in Massachusetts elections.