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Dispatches from that "Man from Nantucket"
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Post Election Fireworks

12/02/06 · 5:34 am :: posted by Jamie     

“We petition for a hand recount of the ballots cast in the special election of November 21, 2006 to fill a vacancy on the Nantucket Board of Selectman [sic] on the grounds that irregularities in the conduct of the election and the preliminary and final counting of optical scanner-read and so called rejected ballots caused the record of such balloting to be erroneous and that a recount will effect [sic] the results. To preserve the issues for additional legal review of the election, we allege: that the initial hand count of the 70 rejected-as-unreadable ballots resulted in an adjustment to the vote tallies totaling 73, above the two-vote margin that decided the election; that the subsequent count of rejected ballots resulted in a count that was significantly different, statistically, than the voting pattern reflected in the machine read ballots; that an unauthorized person, namely, Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, Whiting Willauer, was present in the secure ballot counting area and interfered with the orderly counting of the rejected ballots; that the Town Clerk, who was a candidate for the office, appears to have certified the ballot and/or caused her name to be placed at the top right corner of the ballot, and that the ballot layout deviated from the standard election ballot layout employed by the Town Clerk previously, and resulted in voter confusion over which oval corresponded with each candidate.” (credit here to Grant Sanders for publishing this text; see his blog at www.grantsanders.blogspot.com)

With these words, evidently all hell has broken loose over here.? Well, not really, but I really wanted to work some serious controversy into this post.

We had a "special election" over here recently.? Not to be confused with the normal November election that everyone had at the beginning of November.? A few months ago, Board of Selectmen member (and former Chairman) Michael Glowacki resigned for health reasons with some 7 months remaining in his BOS term.? Throwing their hat in the ring for Michael's seat were:

- David Gray, native islander and master plumber;
-?Arch McColl, the Chairman of the Nantucket Conservation Commission (tragically Arch passed away about amonth before the election);
- Patty Roggeveen, the executive director of the Nantucket Community School (which, among other things, provides adult ed classes and early childhood programs at the Nantucket Public Schools);
- Catherine Flanagan Stover, Nantucket's Town Clerk

David and Patty have run for BOS before.? Patty narrowly lost a seat in April '06 to current BOS member Michael Kopko.

This election was not without controversy.? As with many small towns, I think that many voters have a certain queasiness about citizens who already hold positions in the Town running for office. ?People love to talk about "conflicts of interest" in Nantucket politics.? There was some "buzz" about Catherine running because she already holds the position of Town Clerk, and, not for nothing, the Town Clerk has to certify the election results, set up elections, etc.??

Personally I think being on the BOS is a fairly thankless and immensely time consuming job (for no money) and, between you and me, wouldn't wish it on virtually anyone.? Wait. . . there's a few people I might wish it on.? However, anyone who runs for BOS in my opinion is welcome to it.? A BOS member might even take more crap on a daily basis than I do in my job as an attorney.? Hmmm. . . maybe not.? But it's a close call.? One thing I am sure of: as fun as it could be, it would take superhuman strength to muster up the enthusiasm to sit next to Doug Bennett every week even if it is on TV.? ?In the end however, Catherine was evidently cleared by the geeks at the Commonwealth Department of Conflict Checking for People Who See Fit to Wanna Run for Elected Office in a Small Town? (DCCPWSFRWREOST; pronounced "Deecipwisffer-Roast") and things proceeded.? Actually I was kidding about the DCCPWSFRWREOST.? I don't believe that such a department exists.? According to Catherine she was evidently cleared by some sort of ethics office at the state level.

As I may have mentioned in an early blog post, special elections on Nantucket have a notoriously low voter turnout.? This one was no exception.? Despite my usual suggestions for increasing voter turnout (fried dough, clowns, balloons, freak show, dunk tank, what have you),? I think slightly more than 30% of the Town's 7,000 some odd registered voters turned out.? The results:? a squeaker.? At the end of the day on November 21, 2006, Patty was ahead by some forty (40) votes.? Catherine called to congratulate her.? However, some seventy (70) votes (or 73 if you follow Patty's recount request rationale) had been rejected by the Vote-a-Matic electronic ballot reader thingy as "unreadable" and had to be hand-counted.? The hand count was conducted in due course by Assistant Town Clerk James Grieder who, in the end, announced that despite the early forty (40) vote lead that Patty had held as a result of the "readable" ballots, Catherine had won the election by a two (2) vote margin.? Once again kids, there's a lesson in here somewhere about every vote counting and the importance of remembering to do your civic duty.??

I interviewed Catherine last Thursday on a segment for a new TV show on Nantucket's TV-17.? ?At that point I wasn't aware of the allegations that had been leveled in the recount paperwork and was simply focused on how the hell she managed to screw up rigging an election to win by only two (2) votes when she could've just manhandled it into a landslide.? If anything, Catherine's incompetence to properly manage what should have been a simple exercise in tried and tested third-world election rigging should, in and of itself, result in some sort of recall.? But seriously - she obviously denied any impropriety.? I've known Catherine and her family for virtually my entire life.? To say that I find it hard to believe that there was any impropriety of the type that has been suggested would be putting it mildly indeed.? 'Course I can't speak about Whiting "Whitey" Willauer.? He's well-known as one of the dirtiest players in the business.? Actually that's not true, but it sure sounds good when you picture the Chairman of the BOS stalking through a "secure" recount area. . . doesn't it?? ?Maybe he was just looking for the bathroom.

I do have to say that I've also gotten to know Patty a little bit. ?I talked to her prior to this election and I like her. ?I think I told her to go out and recruit the Latino vote which is completely disenfranchised on Nantucket but whose contituents use the Community School quite frequently.? I also know and like Patty's husband, Dirk Roggeveen, the Nantucket Conservation Commission Administrator and current Chairman of the Historic District Commission (which has to approve virtually all construction on Nantucket for historical "appropriateness").? Like the Flanagans, the Roggeveen's run about three (3) generations deep on Nantucket, but even if Patty had won, conflict issues would have no doubt arisen around her as well.??

In?the end, I'm not sure where it all went sideways but with the wisdom of lo these many years of being around Nantucket politics I will tell a story.? I recall giving some unsolicited advice to Brian Chadwick who had lost another extremely close election a few years ago to one Doug Bennett.? He was mulling a recount.? I told him to let it go.? To his credit he did (and probably not because I said anything - most people think I'm an idiot) and Brian went on to be elected the very next year and now sits on the Board.? Although I'm sure it stings, I would give the same advice to Patty that I gave to Brian.? Doug Bennett's seat is up in April . . . and, not for nothing, so is Catherine's.??

 

3 comments
Blog posts and comments are entirely the thoughts and ideas of the people who write them and in no way represent the views of CapeCodToday.com, eCape, Inc., or its employees or owners.

12/02/06 @ 9:25 pm
Monponsett [Member] writes:
Cool font.

I want Comic Sans MS, but I bug Walter for enough other stuff.
 [ Show all comments by this user ]
12/11/06 @ 1:52 pm
Roger2 [Member] writes:
This guy Jamie Ranney is known for talking out of both sides of his mouth. He's a fast-lipped, bad breath lawyer by trade, and his family has dominant yet quietly unpopular control of Nantucket's Town Government. His sister is Town Administrator, his realstate scamming father runs Nantucket's share of the Steamship Authority, and his brother in law heads the local police. Can you say political incest?
 [ Show all comments by this user ]
12/11/06 @ 1:53 pm
Roger2 [Member] writes:
Hey Ranney, everyone knows the election was fixed. You know it too.
 [ Show all comments by this user ]
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About This Blog


Jamie Ranney has lived year-round on Nantucket since 1977 after moving  with his family from Los Angeles, CA.  He attended the public school system on Nantucket and graduated from Nantucket High School in 1987.  Jamie graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, OH in 1991 with a BA in Political Science and enrolled in Vermont Law School in 1999 and graduated in 1999 with a Juris Doctor and a master's degree (cum laude) in Environmental Law.
Jamie was appointed and served as the Chairman of the Town of Nantucket's Beach Management Advisory Committee for five (5) years from 1999 - 2004.  He is the host of Channel 17's "Friday Night with Jamie Ranney" and currently owns and operates a three lawyer private law practice focusing primarily on civil litigation as well as construction law, real estate conveyancing, local permitting issues and representation in front of municipal boards. 

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