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ASHBY -- Resident Kevin Stetson has acquired the necessary paperwork to ask the town clerk to conduct a formal recount of last week's override election to supplement the school district's operating budget.
Proposition 2 1/2 override votes took place in Ashby, Pepperell and Townsend to supplement the operating budget for the regional school district. The vote passed in Pepperell, failed in Townsend, and was successful in Ashby by only three votes.
Stetson is the chairman of the Finance Committee in town, and said in an email that he is not asking for the recount as the chair but rather as a town resident.
Selectmen Dan Meunier said that anyone has the right to request a recount, but it's unlikely in this particular case the vote will be any different.
"I guess if it was that close of a vote, and they have enough signatures, they can request one. There were five people there and all of the ballots were counted five times," Meunier said.
All ballots cast in elections in Ashby are counted by hand, Meunier said.
"I would certainly think that it would be an accurate count. It's better that we have it hand counted than a machine because everybody remembers the presidential election in Florida," he said, while noting that he would imagine that five different sets of eyes were on the ballots.
"It's not like it could be
Ashby resident Lillian Whitney said people in town are not opposed to helping the school district, but there were other funding sources the money could have come from, including from the stabilization fund.
"I think with the voting so close, it's a good idea to go back and look one more time. It's hard to know if a mistake was made," she said. "It was only a 'yes' or 'no' vote. A 'yes' could have been put in the 'no' pile, and a 'no' could have been put in the 'yes' pile. It could have been an easy oversight. With only three votes out of 1,000, that's amazing."
