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September 17, 2012

The Board of Elections Needs to Assure Rhode Islanders that Every Vote Counts

Carroll Andrew Morse

Mutliple sources are reporting that William San Bento has ended the day with a one vote lead over Carlos Tobon in the District 58 (Pawtucket) Democratic primary for State Representative. Apparently four different recounts have produced four different results, with further recounts possible. According to the Associated Press...

...the final tally came down to a single mail ballot that was initially not counted.
Ethan Shorey includes a short timeline of the multiple recounts in his coverage in the Valley Breeze.

Given that the election in Pawtucket could be decided by a margin as small as a one or two mail-in ballots --it was mail-in ballots that flipped the original election night result, from a 6-vote Tobon lead to a 3-vote San Bento lead -- has anyone asked the state Board of Elections for their accounting of how the mail-in votes seen in the Erasmo Ramirez surveillance video, as well as any other ballots that may have been obtained in the course of the related investigation (if there was a related investigation), were dealt with, and specifically whether any ballots from voters registered in District 58 were involved? As the result in District 58 is proving, no number of tainted (or suppressed) ballots should be too small for the Board of Elections to be concerned about.