Ansonia recounts over, no changes
ANSONIA — After several late night recounts, the numbers changed in the city’s Third Ward Aldermanic races but not the winners.
Joseph Cassetti, an incumbent Republican and brother of Mayor David Cassetti, and Joseph Jeanette, a former Alderman, will represent the city’s Third Ward.
Election officials spent much of Monday night and again Tuesday evening working to determine the final numbers in the election. Over the course of three recounts Monday, the numbers of ballots cast and the final results of the four candidates kept changing, but the two winners always remained the same.
Tuesday’s totals, which will be sent to the Secretary of the State’s office, show Jeanette tallying 277 votes, Cassetti 273 votes, Dominico Filippone 270 votes and Leslie Navarette 266 votes.
The recount of the three races in the First, Third and Fourth ward was mandated because the totals fell within a 19vote difference.
In the First Ward, the recount confirmed Charles Stowe, an incumbent Republican, received the highest vote total at 308. He will serve another term. The secondplace finisher, Daniel King, another Republican incumbent, bested Nina Phipps by seven votes 293 to 286.
Fourthplace finisher Gary Farrar Jr. netted 257 votes, putting him out of the picture.
The totals in the Fourth Ward showed Diane Stroman, a retired TEAM executive, garnering 154 votes and her running mate, Rohan Brown, getting 131 votes. The final candidate, Anthony Spigarolo, a Republican newcomer, received 147 votes.
All the races fell within the 19vote requirement to trigger a recount.
The totals remained the same after the recount: Stroman and Spigarolo will be the new Fourth Ward aldermen.
The Third Ward was where the numbers changed but not the winners.
The election night totals had Jeanette, a longtime Democratic alderman who was elected to the Board of Education two years ago, receiving the highest vote total at 279. He was followed by Joseph Cassetti with 273 votes, Filippone with 270 votes and Navarrete with 268 votes.
During the three recounts, the vote totals kept changing by a few votes, none of which affected the outcome.
Jeanette and Navarrete lost two votes each from election night totals because two ballots that contained writeins were counted twice once by the machine and once by hand, according to David Papcin, the Republican registrar of voters.
The four recounts spanned two days and nearly seven hours.
Absentee ballots played a factor in the race. Without absentees, Cassetti and Filippone tallied 263 and 262 votes respectively while Jeanette and Navarrete received 257 and 246 votes respectively. Jeanette then received 18 absentee ballot votes, Navarrete 17, Cassetti six and Filippone five.
Based on current totals, the new Board of Aldermen convening in December will have 10 Republicans and four Democrats. That’s a change from the current 140 Republican majority.
Cassetti has scheduled the inauguration of the newly elected boards for 6 p.m. Dec. 5 at Ansonia High School.