Recount coming in Uxbridge election
By Sara Withee / Milford Daily News Staff    May 27, 2005

UXBRIDGE Citing the close finish, Robert Finnegan yesterday announced he will petition for a recount of this week's Board of Selectmen election the second for him and the town in two years.

     Finnegan said the two-vote margin putting James Dwyer in office is too tight not to be checked, and a recount will put to rest concerns arising from the town's past voting troubles.

     "I just think given the history of the voting process in Uxbridge, from my perspective, the worst thing that can happen is the accuracy of the results will be confirmed and people will realize they can have confidence in them," he said.

     Complicating the process is the fact that Finnegan and Dwyer were tied, 778-778, when Town Clerk Holly Gallerani announced unofficial results Tuesday night. This included ballots read by the Accu-Vote tabulating machines. But Dwyer gained two votes after write-ins and other votes the machines didn't process were hand-counted.

     Finnegan voiced regret over the results. "I'm disappointed that more people didn't exercise their right to vote," he said.

     Finnegan has until June 3 to return petition forms with voter signatures. He said he never had any urge to skip a recount, even after challenging last year's men election results in Superior Court.

     "I never decided I wasn't going to do a recount," Finnegan said. "I just hadn't decided. We need to know. We need to bring closure to this."

     Dwyer said he would do the same.

     "My reaction is that any candidate who loses by such a slim margin should, in order to fulfill his responsibility to those people who backed him, ask for a recount," he said. "That's the proper thing to do."

     But Dwyer expects the same results following the recount, given the town's voting machine upgrades and training the Board of Registrars and election workers have received since last year.

     "I trust that they will because they've checked those machines six ways from Sunday to make sure they're working," he said.

     In April 2004, Finnegan won his bid to serve another three-year man term, coming in three votes over challenger Donald Sawyer.

     But that time, Sawyer petitioned the recount, which produced six new ballots and put him five votes over Finnegan. Town officials later learned the voting machines had malfunctioned.

     Finnegan, meanwhile, filed a lawsuit seeking a second recount, which maintained Sawyer's win but changed the overall number of votes for a third time. A judge denied Finnegan's motion for a new election and he conceded the race to Sawyer.