Ballot clerks conducted a new count of the votes cast for two seats on the Damariscotta Board of Selectmen the afternoon of Wednesday, June 14. The results confirmed that voters elected George Parker and Amy Leshure.
After seeking legal advice from the Maine Municipal Association, Cheryl Pinkham, the town’s treasurer and deputy moderator of the town meeting, called for a new count in the race to correct a tabulation error, Town Clerk Michelle Cameron said in an email.
“We were looking at it as two separate races for the board of selectmen, so if someone wrote in a name directly below George Parker, we were saying it was an over-vote,” Cameron said in an email. “This was wrong because candidates do not run for a specific seat but whatever is open. In the new count, we counted all valid votes and the two candidates with the most votes won.”
Parker received 184 votes to win a second three-year term. Write-in candidate Leshure received 71 votes to win the other seat on the board, which had belonged to Jim Cosgrove. Cosgrove did not seek re-election. Lorraine Faherty, the other declared write-in candidate for the seat, received 63 votes.
The town did not conduct a new count for the Damariscotta School Committee and Great Salt Bay Sanitary District seats, which were won by incumbents Angela Russ and John Gallagher, respectively.
