HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Board of Civil Authority - 03/07/2020BOARD OF CIVIL AUTHORITY March 7, 2020
The South Burlington Board of Civil Authority Held a Special Meeting on Saturday, February
29 2020, at 9 a.m., in the 2nd floor conference room, City Hall, 575 Dorset Street:
MEMBERS PRESENT: C. Shaw, Chair; D. Kinville, City Clerk; P. Taylor, H. Riehle, D. Kaufman, M.
Mahoney, R. Nowak, T. Barritt, S. Hutchins, M. St. Germain, A. Milot, J. Abate
ALSO PRESENT: M. Emery, Sister J. Ryan, P. MacKenzie, other members of the press and public
1. Agenda Review:
No changes were made to the Agenda.
2. Instructions on exiting the building in case of an emergency:
Mr. Shaw reviewed emergency instructions.
3. Comments & Questions from the public, not related to the Agenda:
No comments or questions where received.
4. Break open seals from District 7-2 and 7-3 that contain presidential primary ballots as
well as city ballots, separate the ballots and reseal the presidential primary into
separate bags
Ms. Kinville, Mr. Taylor and Mr. Mahoney retrieved the ballot bags and tabulators from the
city clerk’s vault. Ms. Kinville noted that in 2 districts, the ballots for presidential primary
and the city ballots were not separated on the night of the election. The City has applied for
and been granted a Court Order to open the bags of ballots for this purpose.
The ballots were placed on the correct districts tables and opened and separated by all BCA
members present. A decision was made not to immediately put the seals on the
presidential ballots just in case we needed to make sure nothing was still mixed in with
them.
5. Recount
Ms. Kinville explained that due to a higher turnout at the March 3rd election, a number of
ballots had to be photocopied and then hand-counted. Because the difference between the 2
candidates in one of the City Council elections, one of the candidates has requested a recount.
Ms. Kinville noted that this recount would take place in 2 phases: the tabulators would be used
for the ballots which are machine read. The second phase would consist of hand counting the
photocopied ballots.
The BCA members wanted it noted that although some of them backed one of the 2 candidates
that they felt they could participate in this recount in an impartial manner. Ms. Kinville then
administered the election oath to all BCA members. The board members were then asked to
work in pairs in feeding the ballots through the tabulator making sure that the 2 members were
not working the poll they worked on election night and were not public supporters of the same
candidate. Any ballot not clearly marked would be put aside for further review. It was noted
that the 4 tabulators being used were tested during the pre-election BCA meeting and were
sealed but were not used on election day. Following that, a “zero tape” was run in each of 4
new tabulators.
During the process, members of the public were shown ballots that were rejected by the
tabulators or where ballot markings raised a question of voter intent. The decision with regard
to those ballots was explained.
When the counting process was completed, Ms. Kinville announced the final results as follows:
Meaghan Emery…..3,937
Matt Cota…………….3,869
This represented a difference in the count of 3 additional votes for Matt Cota and 3 less for Ms.
Emery. Ms. Kinville explained that this could be due to a difference in the determination of
questionable ballots as to voter intent.
The bags of ballots were then sealed and the tag number recorded.
Presidential ballots District 7-2 #0203740 District 7-3 #0203738, 0203739
City Ballots District 7-1 #0203736, 0203723 District 7-2 #0203734, 0203735,
District 7-3, #0203733, 0203731, 0203744 District 7-4 #0203741
Ms. Emery was then sworn in as City Councilor.
Ms. Kinville informed members that the revote on the defeated school budget has been set for
April 2.
Ms. Riehle then moved to adjourn. Mr. Barritt seconded. The motion passed with all present
voting in favor. The meeting was adjourned at 12:45 p.m.