Hennessey Wins NEWNC Election Tiebreaker

Several recounts were conducted by members of the North End/Waterfront Neighborhood Council (NEWNC) to determine an apparent tie for the Council’s sixth and final seat on the community volunteer group.

Each time, both Sean Hennessey and Luigi Natale came out the same with each candidate still even at 135 votes each.

However, several of Natale’s write in votes were deemed void because of the way they were filled out dropping his vote count to 132 resulting in Hennessy winning the recount and a spot on the Council.

Hennessey formally with Channel 7 in very active in neighborhood sports with the North End Athletic Association (NEAA).

Natale is very active in the Knight Basketball program. He ran as a write in candidate.

NEWNC consulted with City Hall on the validly of the two ballots, and they advised that if it was a city election, the ballots would not be counted.

NEWNC Statement

The Election Committee of the North End/Waterfront Neighborhood Council (NEWNC) met Tuesday night, to review the results of Saturday’s election.  During the initial vote count and two subsequent recounts, a total of 31 ballots containing potentially non-conforming write-in votes were flagged for review. The Election Committee applied the standard referenced in the NEWNC Bylaws and by the Massachusetts Secretary of State to accept 26 of the 31 ballots as votes for Luigi Natale.  That standard is “all write-in votes should include the correct name…”  In the remaining 26 ballots, which included misspellings and ballots where the voter failed to complete the vote indicator next to the write-in space, were deemed to count.  However, 5 ballots, where an incomplete name was written, were deemed not to count.

As a result, the Election Committee, by a vote of 6-0, submitted the following results, to the Council:

1. 223 votes – Maria Lanza
2. 159 votes – Jorge Mendoza

3. 152 votes – Philip Frattaroli

4. 149 votes – Carmine Guarino

5. 144 votes – Ralph Verrocchi

6. 136 votes – Sean Hennessey
7. 132 votes – Luigi Natale
8. 123 votes – David Marx
9. 110 votes – Alessandra Susi

The North End/Waterfront Neighborhood Council then met to accept the findings of the Election Committee by a vote of 9-1.  As a result, Lanza, Mendoza, Frattaroli, Guarino, Verrocchi and Hennessey are elected to NEWNC for the 2015-2017 term.