School Vote Recount Set for Thursday

A recount is scheduled to be held Thursday for votes cast in the April 27 election that placed Priti Shah just two votes ahead ahead of Beverly Cwerner, an incumbent, for a three-year seat on the Board of Education.

The recount will be held as a result of a decision earlier in the day by Superior Court Judge Yolanda Ciccone in Somerville, according to an employee with the Somerset County Board of Elections.

A recount of votes cast in voting machines will begin at 9:30 a.m. in Hillsborough, but a final vote of mail-in and provisional votes is scheduled for noon on Thursday at the Board of Elections office, the employee said.

The recount is open to the public. The Board of Elections office is at 20 Grove Street in Somerville.

Shah already was sworn onto the , along with two other board members elected on April 27, during the board's annual reorganization meeting following the election. At that time, board secretary Nick Markarian said the board would abide by any changes in membership if ordered by the court.

Cwerner, who apparently lost a third available seat on the Board of Education by just two votes,t last week said she wants to guarantee that the count was accurate, especially since the total shifted three times.

The latest tally, reported on the school website, put Shah as the winner with 1,193 votes, compared with 1,191 votes for Cwerner. The candidates have been neck-and-neck since the election for third place in a nine-candidate race for three seats on the Board of Education. Candidates Linda Wooldridge and Susan McGowan, an incumbent, were first and second place vote-getters.

Cwerner last week filed a court motion seeking the recount, and was asked to appear Wednesday before Judge Ciccone with other interested parties to determine if the recount should be held.

 "The outpouring from my supporters, the people who helped me during my campaign, has been almost unanimous in that they want me to seek a recount," Cwerner said last week.

Cwerner said she thinks it makes sense in any contest where there are 2,300 votes cast, and results differ by two votes, to count again. But the multiple changes in results gives her even more reason for seeking to make sure the count was correct, she said.

Cwerner led by 17 votes  in an unofficial count on election night, but the county's count of provisional votes on May 2 put Shah ahead by four votes. The county clerk's office then as the third winner for the three, three-year seats, along with Wooldridge and McGowan.

McGowan and Wooldridge were decisively elected to two of the three available board seats with 1,712 and 1,419 votes respectively. The proposed tax levy to support the 2011-12 school budget also was approved on election night, 2,451 to 1,840.