Reading Election Recount: Select Board Winners Remain The Same

READING, MA — The Town of Reading on Saturday conducted a recount of ballots in two races from the April 4 Annual Town Election, resulting in only minor changes to the official vote count in one race.

The winners in that race remained the same after the recount, which took place at the Reading Memorial High School Field House.

According to the Reading Post, the results in the race for Select Board after the recount were: Karen Gately Herrick 2,429 votes, Carlo Bacci 2,394 votes and Melisa Lee Murphy 2,386.

Gately Herrick and Bacci were the winners of the April 4 election and already have been sworn in on the board. After the recount, Herrick lost one vote and Bacci gained two votes from the previous official results that were released by the Town Clerk's office on April 6.

Murphy, who requested the recount after missing out on the second board seat by five votes, lost one vote in the recount. As a result, Bacci's margin of victory over Murphy grew to eight votes.

The other recount took place in the race for Board of Library Trustees. Brian Curry had requested a recount in that race after losing out on the second of two seats by 568 votes.

After the recount, the vote totals in that race all remained the same with Monette Dugas Verrier (2,875 votes) and Christian Cappy Popp (2,254 votes) remaining the winners of the two open seats and Curry (1,686 votes) and Michael Terry (1,468) finishing third and fourth respectively.

The recount was done by hand and conducted by election workers from Reading. Both Gately Herrick and Murphy brought attorneys to the proceedings.

The recount took about four hours.