Grabowski wins Saugus school board recount

SAUGUS – Arthur Grabowski will be keeping his seat on the Saugus School Committee after a recount Thursday confirmed his Nov. 8 victory over Tom Stewart.?I?m totally relieved,” said Grabowski. “I was ecstatic. Anyone who says, ?My vote doesn?t count,? please rethink that because you?re vote does count. Here?s five votes and the swing either way could have meant somebody in or somebody out.”In the Nov. 8 election, Grabowski was re-elected to his second term with 1,966 votes, while Stewart received 1,962 votes to miss out on his re-election bid by just four votes. With such a close margin, Stewart filed recount papers 10 days after the election.Grabowski wound up picking up two votes while Stewart picked up one additional vote as the final tally put Grabowski up by five.Despite the result, Stewart said he?s not sorry he went through the process.?I have to say I think it was handled fabulously by the Town Hall (staff), by the candidates and their teams,” said Stewart. “It was a really, really good day for the process. Things were handled really professionally all across the board and people should feel good about that.”The recount officially began Thursday at around 10:15 a.m. after police and the Board of Registrars escorted the 10 plastic ballot boxes from the Town Hall vault to the auditorium. The counting finally ended at around 5:30 p.m.The Town Clerk?s office set up five tables, each with two election officials, a tally counter and a ballot reader. Yellow police tape cordoned off the counting area from the general public, as only election officials, candidates and their observers were allowed in.The counting process was tedious as more than 5,000 ballots needed to be tallied. The auditorium was mostly silent, except for the dull mumble of the ballot readers reading out the votes cast on each one.Stewart and Grabowski were both entitled to as many as two observers and one attorney per table, but both had around eight observers each.Speaking to The Item Thursday night, Stewart said he?s happy to have the issue finally put to rest.?There?s no hard feelings or animosity at all,” said Stewart. “It was a process worth having done and I wish Arthur and the rest of the Board well and now we can all move on.”After the recount, Grabowski said Stewart will be missed on the School Committee, and called Stewart a “credit to Saugus.”?Tom?s a great guy,” said Grabowski. “He?s a wonderful family man. Even his daughter came up and congratulated me. I?m sure there will be times over the next two years that we have conversations. I value Tom?s judgment. I sat next to him for two years.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected]. You can follow him on Twitter @MattTempesta.