‘Holy guacamole!’
Mail ballots swing last City Council opening in newcomer’s favor – by just 10 votes
WOONSOCKET — City Council candidate Julia A. Brown went to bed on election night thinking she’d lost to Roger G. Jalette Sr., but by Wednesday morning the story had a happier ending.
After the state Board of Elections added some, but not all, of the mail ballots into the mix – Brown was the apparent winner for the last and seventh-place spot in the council sweepstakes, leading Jalette, 3,630-3,620 – a gap of just 10 votes.
“Holy guacamole,” she exclaimed after learning of the reversal at Bernon Heights Elementary School, where she works as a substitute teacher. “This is news to me.”
Whether the lead holds remains to be seen, however. State Deputy Director of Elections Miguel Nunez says all of the ballots still haven’t been counted, and an official tally may still be days away.
Moreover, Jalette said he intends to ask the state Board of Elections for a recount. Like Brown, Jalette went to bed after the election night returns were in believing he had won a seat on the seven-member panel, only to awake to a radio broadcast Wednesday morning in which Brown was proclaimed the presumptive victor.
“Right now you have no idea how I feel,” Jalette said. “This is a great disappointment.”
According to Nunez, the election returns displayed on the BOE’s website include the machine ballots and some, but
not all, of the mail ballots. Those returns will change as elections officials continue counting additional mail ballots and provisional ballots they haven’t yet gotten to.
“Everything won’t be counted until next Tuesday, at the earliest,” he said.
Also, Jalette and other candidates have until that day – Nov. 13 – to request a recount, which could push out even further the timeline for certification of Woonsocket’s election results. There is no official deadline for certification of the results by the BOE, though it generally happens within two weeks of the election, Nunez said.
Brown and Jalette are about as different as two candidates can get.
A retired florist, Jalette, 75, is a veteran of the council who served some 15 years on the panel in two separate stints dating back to 1995. He took two years off in 2016 to challenge Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt. In the council race, he campaigned as a fiscal conservative with an eye toward holding taxes and spending in check.
Brown is 23 years old – and would end up as one of the youngest-ever councilors-elect if she maintains the edge over Jalette. Although the alliance was more subdued than the heavy-handed “team” strategy that various groups of candidates employed in 2016, Brown campaigned as an ally of Baldelli-Hunt and beckoned voters to infuse the council with some fresh blood to tune into the concerns of an emerging generation of younger voters.
She says she’s particularly interested in nurturing the city’s percolating arts and en- tertainment economy.
“I’m looking forward to getting to work,” says Brown. “I think the election shows this city is ready for some young blood.”
Whoever ends up laying claim to the seventh spot on the council will join a mix of seasoned veterans and one newcomer that appears poised to reassert a veto-proof majority over Baldelli-Hunt. According to the BOE’s updated results, Council Vice President Jon Brien, running for his second term, was the top vote-getter on the council, with 4,835 votes, or 10.8 percent. He was virtually matched by John F. Ward, with 4,825, also 10.8 percent; David M. Soucy, 4,441, or 9.9 percent; Council President Daniel M. Gendron, 4,386 – 9.8 percent; Councilwoman Denise D. Sierra – 9.5 percent; and Councilman James C. Cournoyer, 3,860 – 8.6 percent.
Finance Director for the town of Lincoln, Ward is a former president of the City Council who is returning to elective office for the first time since 2013.
While Brown’s spot isn’t yet fully guaranteed, the only clear councilor-elect who hasn’t served on the panel before is Soucy. The president of Soucy Insurance Agency is grandson of one mayor and nephew to another, but he has never held public office before. He campaigned as a voice of moderation who hoped to restore some common ground on a coun- cil whose majority has often been at odds with the administration.
Former Council President Albert G. Brien made the rift between the legislative and administrative branches the central theme of his campaign to deny Baldelli-Hunt a third term in office, portraying her as a political loner incapable of compromise. The effort fell short, however, as Baldelli-Hunt, running on her record, made off with 57.7 percent of the vote, compared to Brien’s 41.9 percent. The latest, but still unofficial, tally was 5,347-3,886.
Inauguration day in the city is always the first Tuesday in December – Dec. 4.