Judge orders recount for Franklin
Friday, November 18, 2005
By Pete McCarthy   Gloucester County Times

A recount was ordered on Thursday to confirm a two-vote victory for Democrat committee candidate Kenneth Gallagher Jr. in Franklin Township.

The incumbent Republican, Patrick Dougherty, requested that all votes be checked and tallied one more time in order to get a "clearer picture of what the voters of Franklin Township intended," he said after Superior Court Judge Jean McMaster made her ruling.

"It's so close, we just need to know what the accurate count is," Dougherty said. 
  

The four commissioners two Democrats and two Republicans with the county's Board of Elections have five days to schedule a date for the recount.

This is not the first time a recount has been ordered in Gloucester County since it changed to electronic voting machines in 2000. At least four others have occurred, according to Gloucester County Clerk James Hogan.

"I would not expect to see any change in the machine (tallies) at all," Hogan said.

But Dougherty said he was not worried about the electronic tallies. The key will be with the absentee ballots, he said.

"We're pretty confident there are some irregularities," said attorney Mark Shoemaker, who is representing Dougherty. "Any time the spread is two votes, the most minor irregularities could sway it either way."

The commissioners will go through each of the more than 200 absentee ballots by hand to search for votes that were cast incorrectly, Hogan said. For instance, if a voter was supposed to fill in a circle to identify the candidate they were voting for, the commissioners will see if that person used a check mark or some other way to identify their intention.

It will then be up to them to decide if that vote should be counted.

"The courts have held that clear voter intent goes in favor of the voter," Hogan said. "You could see a clear voter intent change the numbers."

For a recount, it will cost the Republican candidate $25 per district to have the ballots from each of the township's 11 districts reviewed by hand.

Gallagher was leading by four votes after last Tuesday's election, but saw that lead dwindle to two after provisional ballots were counted a week ago. 
 "I'm still confident," Gallagher said after learning of the recount. "Everybody I've talked to has said it's pretty much a done deal."

According to Election Day reports, nearly 46 percent of registered voters in Franklin Township voted. That was on par with county totals.

Since last Tuesday, Dougherty said he has spoken to friends who said they knew of others who had not voted.

You may get that in any election, but in this one, it mattered, Dougherty said.

"It just goes to show that every vote counts," Dougherty said. "It shows you just how close it can actually get."

If the current results stand, Gallagher and his running mate Frank Scavelli would become the first two Democrats elected to township committee in Franklin in nearly 15 years.

Scavelli leads all candidates with 2,212 votes. Gallagher has 2,200 and is followed by Dougherty with 2,198 and Republican Paul Solowey with 1,922.

"I just wish they would just do it and get it over with," Gallagher said. "I want to start talking to the people (of Franklin Township) more, but I can't do that as much because it's still up in the air. It's a matter of getting it done and moving on, so I can start working for the people."