Update: No Recount For Stonington Board Of Education Results

Update: November 9, 2011 at 11:30 a.m.:

There will be no recount of votes in the Stonington Board of Education election results.

On election night and early Wednesday morning it looked like a close margin of victory would trigger an automatic recount of votes, but errors in voting tallies in District Three have made the recount unnecessary.

Town Clerk Cindy Ladwig said votes tallied incorrectly in District Three gave candidate Stephen Bessette (R) 100 more votes than he actually earned. The corrected tallies put the vote margin of victory of Deborah Downie (R) higher than 20 votes, which means state law does not require a recount.

The correct totals for the Board of Education are as follows: Craig Esposito (D) 2,279, Downie 2,170, Frank Todisco (D) 2,297 and Bessette 2,068. Todisco's total went up by three votes due to a counting error in District Two.

November 9, 2011 at 10:08 a.m.

Two votes are all that separate the third and fourth placed finishers in the Stonington Board of Education race. Those two votes, however, are the difference between having a seat and not having a seat on the on the board and they’ve triggered an automatic recount of the results.

According to Connecticut Secretary of State Communications Director state rules require a recount if the vote margin is under 20 votes or the margin is less than 0.5 percent of votes cast.

Democrats and received 2,294 and 2,279 votes, respectively while Republicans and Stephen Bessette received 2170 and 2168 votes respectively.

Town Clerk Cindy Ladwig said a recount has to be conducted by November 16. The Stonington Registrars of Voters will decide later today when to have the recount.

Here are the results of the November 8, 2011 Stonington Board of Education election by district:

For a full list of the vote tallies for each candidate see our “