Everybody Upset Over Library Trustee Tie Vote

At Tuesday's selectmen's meeting, it turned out that selectmen have little authority in resolving a tie vote for two seats on the library Board of Trustees. The tie left the second- and third-place candidates off the board and the five-member board with two empty seats.

Town Clerk Ann Click is in charge of the election results, and on the advice of Town Counsel Ray Miyares, who got his advice from the state Elections Division, Leda Arakelian and June Harris are out.

Click will have to publicly post the openings before selectmen can vote to fill the seats for one-year terms.

In the five-way race for five seats, Leda Arakelian and June Harris tied for second with 1,013 votes. Marie Eldridge, the top vote-getter, and Michael McNamara and John Belger, the fourth and fifth vote-getters, now comprise the board of library trustees.

Nobody seemed to care for the proffered solution.

Selectwoman Michelle Gates saw it as an incorrect interpretation of state law by Miyares. She abstained from voting to have Click post the jobs so selectmen can fill them at their mid-June meeting.

"This compromises the basic process of democracy," Gates said. 

She explained why she thinks Miyares is wrong. "The law only says that you can't have more people than the number of seats," she said.

The wording of the law is "persons receiving the same number of votes shall not be deemed to be elected if thereby a greater number would be elected than are to be chosen."

The problem is that the dividing line between a three-year seat and a two-year seat on the board falls exactly on the tie between Arakelian and Harris, neither of whom apparently is interested in further contesting the election's outcome.

Arakelian and Harris, according to Arakelian, a Hopkinton Patch contributor, would like to simply have one of them take the three-year seat and the other the two, so the trustees can get on with the business of the library, and off the election.

Ken Weismantel, the chairman of the Republican Town Committee, said invalidating the will of the voters keeps candidates from running and causes voters to stay home.

Weismantel offered the "Solomon-like" solution of having one candidate withdraw so the other could assume one of the three-year seats.

Miyares said he would see if that solution complies with town bylaws and passes review with the state.

Selectmen would presumably then be able, at their next meeting. to appoint the candidate who withdraws to a one-year term - if she wants the job.

The dispute over the election also caused assistant Town Clerk Deborah Holbrook to resign.