The school district election was held on Tuesday, May 15th.
Three seats were open on the school board, with James Brooks being the only candidate on the ballot who had submitted a petition to run. However there were a number of write-in candidates who joined the contest late. Mark Ives from Dresden was one write-in candidate, and other write-in candidates were evidently written in at the election booth by several voters.
I contacted the school district at 2:30 pm and spoke to Martha Bascue, the District Clerk. She informed me that the write-in votes were still being tabulated and that no vote totals would be released until the election was official. She said nine different names had been written in and that a number of ballots were being looked at still, and that they had to contact their legal counsel. She said there were approximately 60 write-in votes. I asked how many votes were in question and if any vote totals could be released. Ms. Bascue said that the vote totals would not be released at this time. She suggested that I call back on Thursday, May 17th.
Ms. Bascue did provide me with the names of the people “written in” as candidates in this order (there may be spelling mistakes):
Samantha Kingsley
Mark Ives
Robert Putorti, Jr.
Joyce Corcoran
T. Scrime
Michael Putorti
Rick Juckett
Andre Gordon
Eric Sunduttl
This is an important issue, because the top two write-in candidates would serve one 5 year term on the school board and the other would serve a 4 year term. I personally find the fact that no vote totals have been released yet to be a bit troubling, as well as the fact that the number of ballots being looked at for possible issues is also unknown.
The budget passed with 190 votes “for” and 25 “opposed”.
The proposition to buy a new school bus passed with 153 votes “for” and 35 “opposed”.
More on this as it develops.