AMHERST – The week following the 2021 Amherst election has shown the public that this year’s election cycle is not quite over yet.

Following the closing of polls on the Nov. 2 election night, 17 ballots that had been placed in the town clerk’s vault without being tallied on election night were later found.

On Nov. 8, ballot counting continued at Town Hall as uncounted ballots were recorded.  

The addition of these votes had no impact on any race, according to Town Clerk Susan Audette, and she also wanted to ease any nerves residents had regarding the election process with this news. Post-election, there are provisional ballots, ballots that were denied by the tabulator machine, and other ballots reconciled after the election that come in afterward, but she stressed the oversight of the 17 ballots placed in the town clerk’s vault was the result of a minor accident and misunderstanding of when certain votes can be added following polls closing.

“What happened was we got them late in the day, but they were on time. We put them in our vault and for some reason we just thought we could count them after the election, not on election night,” Audette said. “When I found out they had to be counted on election night, then we wanted to make this as publicly open as possible to let people know they should’ve been counted on election night, they just weren’t, so we’re counting them now.”

Audette and the town continued to count provisional and auxiliary binned ballots the rest of the week to make an official release of election results. While there have been no reports of any changes within races with updated unofficial vote counts, the District 4 race for the two seats on Town Council is going to see a recount.

Anika Lopes decisively won the first seat on the council for the district, but current District 4 Councilor Evan Ross lost his reelection bid to the Town Council to challenger Pamela Rooney by five votes according to the unofficial count – Rooney with 478 and Ross with 473. Ross has taken the necessary steps in requesting a hand counted recount of the ballots with the votes being so close.

“Given the incredibly narrow margin between Pam Rooney and me, I believe it is prudent to pursue a hand recount of District 4 ballots. This will serve to double-check the final tally and provide the voters of District 4 an added measure of confidence in the final result,” Ross said in a released statement. “Both Anika Lopes and Pam Rooney have signaled their support for the decision, representing unified support for a recount among all three candidates for District 4 councilor. I want to be clear that the recount petition is in no way a judgement of our superb Town Clerk’s office … I  continue to have full faith in our town clerk and the integrity of our elections here in Amherst … any human or machine error – including voters mistaking their ballots in a manner that led the machine to not read or misread the ballot – has the potential to affect the outcome. A recount is needed to provide assurance.”

In other elections, the town saw the reelection of at-large incumbents Mandi Jo Hanneke and Andy Steinberg, while newcomer Ellisha Walker joined the Town Council as the third at-large seating member. In the School Committee races, current members Peter Demling, Ben Harrington and Allison McDonald all won reelection. Irvin Rhodes and Jennifer Shiao Page also will join the School Committee following the unofficial vote count.

In the District 3 race incumbent George Ryan was bested by both Dorothy Pam and Jennifer Lynn Taub, the ladder being a new addition to the council. District 5 saw Ana Devlin Gauthier join the council as Shalini Bahl-Milne was reelected. Gauthier will take the seat of Darcy Dumont who did not run for reelection.

Audette said she would not be updating the preliminary election results until the official results are finalized and in hand.