Somers Clerk: Clerical Error Led To Ballot Question Miscount

SOMERS, CT — A clerical error was the cause of a discrepancy of more than 1,000 votes on a ballot question in Somers, officials said.

Voting on the question took place on Nov. 6 as part of the statewide elections. It was Qestion 6 and it read:

Shall The Town remain guided by an elected Board of Selectmen with an appointed Chief
Administrative Officer reporting to the Board of Selectmen?

The premise was to gauge public opinion on adding a town administrator to oversee the day-to-day operations of Somers in addition to the charter-mandated first selectman and three-person board of selectman, officials from the town clerk's office said.

Officials said that, on Election Day, an abundance of wet ballots, most from raindrops dripping off voters, caused a machine to malfunction. A replacedment machine was then deployed, officials said.

At about 1:30 a.m., when the votes were tabluated the results seemed to be:

• Yes - 1,289
• No - 1,669

On Friday however, when officials were performing a categorical voting breakdown for the Secretary of the State's office, the discrepancy was noticed on the backup tapes for both machines, according to the clerk's office.

That turned the tally into:

• Yes - 2,456
• No - 1,669

Photo Credit: Chris Dehnel

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