Clinton to hold recount for Select Board seat that was won by 1 vote last week

Michael Hachey, in blue shirt, listens during the July 1, 2019, selectmen’s meeting at the Clinton Town Hall. Hachey had been fired as director of the Clinton-Benton Solid Waste Transfer & Recycling Station. He is a write-in candidate Tuesday for the Board of Selectmen. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel file

The town of Clinton will hold a recount Wednesday for the three-year seat on the Board of Selectmen from last Tuesday’s election that was apparently decided by a single vote.

Tuesday’s results showed that candidate Michael Hachey beat current Selectman Ronnie Irving 106-105, with two write-in ballots. Irving submitted a written request for a recount Wednesday last week, according to Clinton Town Clerk Jessica Harriman.

The recount will take place Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Clinton Town Office, 27 Baker St., in the Banquet Hall. The recount is open to the public.

The process for prompting a recount is simple, as a candidate just needs to submit a written request for one within five days of the election to the clerk. It isn’t something that has happened often in Clinton. Harriman said that while this is her first election as town clerk, she had asked around the office to see if anyone knew the last time there was a recount, and no one can remember.

For Wednesday, each candidate will select someone to represent them to count the ballots, Harriman said. The only restriction is they cannot be a family member.

For the night of the recount, the ballots will be split into lots of 50, and each candidates’ representative will go through lot by lot and count the ballots. Then Harriman will check that the counts for each representative match, and if they don’t, representatives will count that lot again, until the numbers match.

In a phone interview Monday, Hachey said that when he saw the results he suspected there would be a recount because he has clashed with Irving and others in the past. But considering that the results were certified, he said, he doubted the recount will have different results.

“It is what it is,” Hachey said. “It’s (Irving’s) right, I have no problem with that. We’ll go through the motions and see what happens.”

Irving could not be reached for comment Monday.

Hachey ran last year as a write-in candidate in a selectman’s election but lost to Brian Bickford. He also previously worked as the transfer station director but was abruptly fired by Clinton Town Manager Earla Haggerty, prompting backlash from residents.

Around the same time as Hachey’s firing, Irving was facing pushback from residents who formed a committee to remove him from the board.

Those residents filed a recall petition, claiming that Irving violated two provisions of the town charter: That selectmen may not comment on matters in which they abstained from voting, and that administrative business must be handled through the town manager and prohibits selectmen from giving orders to subordinates privately or publicly.

However, the committee failed to get the required number of signatures within the 30-day timeframe.