Recently, there was a recanvass (the official term for a recount) of votes for the 38th Assembly District Democratic nomination. The only change from the vote count posted on the Secretary of the State web site was a reduction of one vote for the last place candidate.

The recanvass results are Baird Welsh-Collins 616, Patrick Murphy 608 and Nick Gauthier 448.

The election night results in Waterford reported a total of 1,417 votes cast for the 38th District representative and 1,416 votes cast in the governor’s race.

So how was the recanvass conducted? Prior to the start of the recanvass the Waterford Town Hall RTM Meeting Room was set up with three voting machine platforms, three tables and six chairs. Chairs were also set up for observers.

The moderator, Cheryl Larder, opened the proceedings with a briefing on how the recanvass would be conducted and what was expected of the observers (be quiet and do not approach the area of the canvassers).

Six canvassers were sworn in in the registrar’s office and then proceeded to the three tables. One group was assigned absentees ballots and the other two teams took their stations.

The bags for absentee ballots and Districts 2 and 3 were brought out and unsealed. The three teams started separating the Republican and Democratic ballots (Republican ballots were yellow and Democratic ballots were white).

During this process, one of the observers started to take pictures of the process with his cell phone. The moderator directed him to stop taking pictures and delete the pictures he had already taken. The observer complied.

According to the Secretary of the State rules, only authorized press photographers may take pictures with the moderator’s permission.

While the ballots were being separated, three of the voting tabulators were brought out and installed on the platforms. After the Democratic ballots were separated, the canvassers went through the check-off list for opening the tabulator and printing a zero vote printed tape.

They then commenced feeding the ballots into the tabulators. One of the tabulators would not accept ballots so it was swapped with another tabulator, which used the backup program disk from the tabulator used at the polls on primary day rather than the backup tabulator with its own disk. No other tabulators malfunctioned.

The absentee ballots were the first counted since there were only 48 to count. Then District 3’s 341 ballots were counted, followed by District 2’s 355 ballots. The tabulator programs were closed, and the final election report tapes were printed.

The report tapes were signed by the canvassers and the moderator. There is a closing-the-polls report with seals checked and reported in duplicate. One set is for the town clerk and the other is for the Registrar of Voters office.

Ballots were removed from the machine platforms and returned to their bags and secured with appropriate signatures and seals. Different voting tabulators were placed on the platforms, and the program disks were checked and a zero vote tape was printed. Since the District 1 and District 4 ballots had been separated by one of the canvasser teams while the tabulators were swapped, the final districts ballots were fed into the voting tabulators.

When complete, the tabulator program was closed and a results tape was printed for each of the districts. The vote tape was certified, signed, and the tabulator seals were checked with a closing-the-polls report as noted above.

The voting tabulators were secured and seals checked as noted above, while the ballots were removed from the platform containers and returned to the bags and sealed with appropriate reports. The results were announced, and the canvassers and moderator completed all of the necessary paperwork to report to the Secretary of the State.

The process took around four hours. It probably would have taken all day if it was necessary to hand count all ballots.

The moderator and canvassers are volunteers who are paid a modest stipend for their work. They are to be commended for their care and attention to detail.

John W. “Bill” Sheehan is a former Democratic Town Committee chair in Waterford.