Nov. 2023
Emails obtained by The Valley Patriot reveal that a number of voters in Rowley had their ballots discarded and uncounted in last November’s election where Kristin Kassner (D-Hamilton) won the 2nd Essex State Representative seat by one vote over Lenny Mirra (R-Georgetown).
Minutes taken during the recount in that race reveal that ballots rejected by voting machines were “spoiled” by election workers and not counted in the election. This was confirmed in emails from Michelle K. Tassinari, Director and Legal Counsel at the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, who states that “election workers were spoiling ballots that could not be read by the tabulator.
The Town Clerk was informed that spoiling ballots that could not be read by the tabulator is NOT the correct procedure. Ballots that cannot be read by the tabulator should be hand counted not spoiled.”
At the conclusion of that recount, which found no change in Mirra’s four vote lead, attorneys for Kassner demanded to view a pile of spoiled ballots.
They found ten ballots that were deemed to be improperly spoiled and pulled out five of them, all containing votes for Kassner, allowing her to win by one vote.
“We were treated rudely and unprofessionally from the very start,” claims Sandra Capo, who was working at the recount on behalf of the Mirra campaign. “Trudy Reid tried to have me removed from the recount, claiming I was not allowed to work there because I was not the candidate.
I told her that Lenny is at the Ipswich recount, which was happening at the same time. I pointed out that Kassner also wasn’t at Rowley because she was also at the Ipswich recount.”
Reid, who apparently has a history of partisan behavior, was deputized into running the recount on behalf of the town of Rowley.
“We objected to the counting of spoiled ballots as this was not allowed at any other recount,” Capo continued.
“A phone call was made to the Secretary of State’s office and Trudy Reid spoke to someone there. The Secretary of State’s offices will not respond to requests as to what was said, so we don’t know what she was told, but we’re sure Reid wasn’t told to allow one side to cherry pick five ballots when their candidate was down by four votes. And yet she did exactly that.”
Mirra brought the issue to court where judge Thomas Dreschler ruled the matter was no longer in the court’s jurisdiction, but rather with the House of Representatives. A Special House Committee was formed with Rep. Michael Day (D-Stoneham) as Chairman. After several weeks of no action Day decided to call the election for Kassner without reviewing any of the contested ballots.
House Minority Leader Brad Jones (R-North Reading), who was on the Special House Committee, submitted bill H-53 which would have requested the House to open the disputed ballots, but it was voted down along party lines with all Republicans voting in favor of it but all Democrats, with the exception of Russell Holmes (D-Boston), voting in opposition.
“The real problem here is Bill Galvin (D-Boston), our Secretary of State, has been completely silent on this and many other serious election issues,” Mirra stated. “In addition to Rowley we had over a dozen ballots magically appearing at the recount in Ipswich that were not counted during the election. We also had over a hundred mailed-in ballots arriving in Ipswich after the election where signatures on envelopes did not match those on applications.
“This also happened in the 1st Middlesex race between Margaret Scarsdale (D-Pepperell) and Andrew Shepherd, where signatures on mailed in ballots did not match those on applications. Apparently, Galvin is perfectly fine with these problems as long as they benefit him and his party.”
Massachusetts General Law, Ch. 54, Section 103 states that “the Supreme Judicial and Superior Courts shall have jurisdiction in equity to order the counting of any ballot improperly rejected.” ◊