Ridgefield News
November 8, 1999

Heyman-Jones Recount Ends In Tie

Heyman And Jones Still Deadlocked After Recount; Runoff Election Scheduled

Nov. 8 -- In an all-day recount of the Nov. 2 election results, Democrats Mike Jones and Joseph Heyman remain tied for the third Democratic slot on the Board of Selectmen. The runoff election will be held Tuesday, Nov. 23, according to Town Clerk Barbara Serfilippi. Voting will take place from 6 AM to 8 PM, and all three polling places will be used. The winner of the runoff will join First Selectman Rudy Maroni and Selectwoman Barbara Manners on the Board, which will have a 3-to-2 Democratic majority. This is the first time in anyone's memory when a runoff election was needed in Ridgefield. [Photo: Mike Jones (left) and Joseph Heyman (right) campaigned together, including here in front of East Ridge Middle School on election day. Now they find themselves contestants in a runoff for the third Democratic seat on the Board of Selectman. In this picture, Mike's wife Annie Hallinan joins them.]

In the recount, the tally from the voting machines remained exactly the same as the election night reading. In the absentee ballots, each candidate was credited with two votes less than recorded during the election night tally. The final vote is:

• Joseph Heyman - 3787
• Mike Jones - 3787

Town Clerk Barbara Serfilippi had carefully researched state statutes for conducting a recount, and was prepared with procedures for every eventuality, and confident answers to everyone's questions. She was assisted in the day's activities by the election moderators and the Registrars of Voters. [Photo, right: Town Clerk Barbara Serfilippi (standing, center) joins Republican Registrar Pauline Moylan (left) and Democratic Registrar Pat Baker (right) in explaining the recount procedures to observers, candidates, and the press.]

In the morning, each voting district was visited by the recount team. Voting machines, which had been impounded and kept under seal since the Nov. 2 election, were unsealed, opened, and their tallies checked and double-checked. There were no discrepancies found in any of the twenty or so machines which were carefully reread at each of the three districts. [Here, a voting machine has been opened at East Ridge Middle School, and is being reread and cross-checked against the tally recorded election day. No discrepancies were found in the machine tally.]

In the afternoon absentee ballots were recounted. The approx. 320 absentee ballots had been sealed, along with the envelopes in which they were submitted, and kept in a safe in Town Hall since election day.

Each absentee ballot was retallied in a painstaking process. Two moderators read each ballot, and two others recorded each vote on separate tally sheets. Results were not accepted until all results were cross-checked and any discrepancies eliminated. In some cases, ballots were read twice to precisely confirm the tally. All told, a dozen election officals worked non-stop for three and one-half hours to complete the tally of 300-plus absentee ballots. By 4:30 PM, the recount was complete, and Town Clerk Barbara Serfillipi confirmed that the recount had resulted in an exact tie, as had the election night tally. Stay tuned for the exciting runoff election Nov. 23!

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