2011 Recount Fourth in Two Decades

On Saturday evening, May 14, as the ballots for the first 2011 budget referendum were being tallied by the voting machines at Brookfield High School (BHS) and Huckleberry Hill Elementary School (HHES), the poll moderators were becoming anxious. The education budget had passed at BHS, but by only 143 votes, not enough to hold up against a 135-vote defeat at HHES coupled with nine more absentee ballots cast against the budget than for.

After the Registrars of Voters double and triple checked the numbers, . The narrow difference forced a recanvassing of the referendum, with , that upheld the defeat, increasing the deficit to nine votes.

Close referendums are not a new phenomenon in Brookfield, with the last recount coming just a few years ago and two more in the mid- and late-1990s.

In 2007, the town was using the optical scan voting machines for the first time and the race for the First Selectman was coming down to the wire, with petitioning candidate Bob Silvaggi ahead of incumbent First Selectman Jerry Murphy by just four votes, 1,528 to 1,524.

A recount was held later that week, increasing Silvaggi's lead to 10 votes and certifying his victory.

The 2007 recount was "the very first we had using actual paper ballots," according to Paula Hopewell, who was the head moderator during the vote.

"Prior to that time, any 'recounts' that were conducted did not involve counting paper ballots, as we did not have them," Hopewell explained. Before the scan machines and paper ballots, a recanvassing required the moderators "to look at the back of the lever machines and re-read, re-record and re-add the numbers shown on the back."

The last recount of that sort was during a referendum to preserve the property on Whisconier Road as open space in 1999. In the first balloting, on January 26, the vote came in tied at 988 to 988. A recount on February 7 provided no change in the numbers.

Newly sworn-in Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz determined that a tie vote in an open referendum required a runoff, which was held on February 16. After a tragic week of mourning over the untimely suicide of then-State Rep. B. Scott Santa-Maria, the community unified and passed the motion overwhelmingly by a vote of 1,424 to 563.

The only other recount in recent history determined the third member of the Board of Selectmen (BOS) in a three-party election in 1995.

On November 7, as the ballots were counted, Republicans Bonnie Smith (First Selectman candidate) and Allan Sniffin (Selectman) were the clear winners, however Democrats Thomas Gallagan (First Selectman) and Richard Amorossi (Selectman) and petitioning candidate Marty Foncello (First Selectman) all fell within 10 votes of each other, garnering 1,179, 1,186 and 1,176, respectively.

After a recanvassing of the vote, Amorossi remained on top, with no change in the number of ballots in his favor, though Gallagan gained one vote and Foncello lost eight.

The closest budget vote in recent history was the second referendum in 2004, in which the budget failed by 46 votes, 1,360 to 1,406, a margin that did not require a recount but did force a third referendum, where the budget finally passed 2,001 to 1,500.

Once this year’s recount certified the budget’s defeat, and resubmitted the proposed 2011-12 budget, to be voted on at referendum Saturday, May 28.