School Election Recount Finished

At 5:40 a.m. yesterday morning, the Cambridge Election Commission declared the six winners of the Nov. 6 School Committee election, completing a month-long recount process.

The result was the same as the one announced the day after election day, with incumbent Susana M. Segat losing out to Richard “Mokie” Harding Jr. and Nancy Walser.

In the original count, only seven votes separated the original vote totals of the candidates, leading all three to petition for a hand recount.

Over the past two weeks, the election officials have ordered, inspected and counted ballots by hand in the first recount since Cambridge computerized its voting system in 1997.

According to the recount tally, Harding and Walser were each elected, with Segat losing by the razor-thin margin of seven votes.

Although the winners declared yesterday are the same as those announced after election day, Chair of the Election Commission Wayne A. “Rusty” Drugan said the results were a surprise to the Segat campaign.

“We knew the Segat people didn’t expect it,” Drugan said.

Segat was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Winners in the contested election expressed relief about the result.

“I’m really happy to serve another two years,” Walser said. “I was also relieved. It’s been a long haul.”

In the end, seventeen new votes were discovered during the recount. Harding gained seven votes, Walser lost seven votes, and Segat lost one vote.

The recount process of an originally computerized vote tally made the ordeal particularly long and drawn-out, though people present at the recount said the atmosphere was positive and professional.

“It was really very collegial,” Walser said of the interactions between candidates and their representatives at the recount.

Election officials and candidates even had fun at the recount according to Drugan.

“Segat said that we throw a hell of a party,” Drugan said.

Now officially elected, candidates Walser and Harding said they are set to begin the new term, in which a new round of teacher negotiations as well as a predicted tight budget season will be large issues.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Walser said. “It’s going to be a challenging two years.”

The recount process is now officially over. After this morning’s declaration of the elected candidates, law prevents any further recounting.

“[I am] glad we’re done,” Drugan said. “We couldn’t do anything else if we wanted to. It would be illegal.”

Although defeated candidate Segat could go to court with objections to the recount process, election commissioners believe legal action to be highly unlikely.

“There was no sense of unfairness. Everyone feels they were fully consulted throughout the process,” Drugan said. “There’s no indication of [further legal action] whatsoever.”

Today the Election Commission will meet again to redistribute the votes on ballots which indicated Segat as their first choice. This process cannot change the result of who is elected, but could change the order of the elected candidates.

One unexpected change in the results of the recount is that Alfred B. Fantini, who had originally placed second trailing first place candidate Alice B. Turkel by eight votes, gained enough votes in the recount to place him first by two votes.

“Here’s a candidate who benefited from the recount without even asking for it,” Drugan said of Fantini.

“I’ll take it as a mandate to lead and provide leadership to my colleagues,” Fantini said last night.

While Fantini’s displacement of Turkel for the top slot of the School Committee does not have any structural implications, it is expected to have political effects both for Fantini as well as for all independent candidates in Cambridge.

“It will have political repercussions,” Drugan said. “An independent topped the ticket in School Committee, as well as in the City Council.”

—Staff writer Stephanie M. Skier can be at skier@fas.harvard.edu