Marblehead Light Commissioner Recount Confirms Winners

MARBLEHEAD, MA — The first Marblehead election recount in 18 years on Monday ended with the top vote-getters in the Municipal Light Commissioner race extending their final margins of victory.

Michael Hull was the top vote-getter with 2,797 votes and Jean-Jacques Yarmoff was second in the race for the two open seats at 2,633 votes. Walter Homan, who had successfully petitioned for the recount, finished with 2,600 votes.

The gap between Yarmoff and Homan increased from the 19-vote margin first reported late on election night to 33 after the recount.

Hull's vote total was the same as that reported in the official results posted after the June 21 election, with Yarmoff gaining seven votes and Homan losing seven votes during the recount process.

The clerk's office was closed on Monday while the recount took place.

Driven by two tax override ballot questions, the June 21 annual town election drew a large turnout that forced the town to use photocopied ballots late in the day after it ran out of printed ballots.

Those photocopied ballots had to be hand-counted because they could not be read by the ballot scanner.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)