By SANDY McGEE

CUMBERLAND — An unusual, unexpected technical difficulty Tuesday evening at Town Hall delayed the announcement of primary results, including an extremely close race for the at-large seat on the Town Council.

After the last precinct worker scuttled into the Board of Canvassers office with poll results Tuesday evening, officials waited for the computer to tally the final results. Election officials soon realized that the reported numbers from the computer for certain races were just too low to be accurate.
Personnel from the state’s Board of Elections worked with the town’s Board of Canvassers late Tuesday night and on Wednesday morning to fix what was first believed to be a computer glitch. On Wednesday, officials realized the first numbers reported by the computer were only mail ballot totals and not a total from all 17-town precincts.
“We counted the mail ballots ahead of receiving the precinct totals,” said Bob Kando, executive director of the state Board of Elections. “The mail ballots made it appear that that was the entire total. Once we received the download from the town of Cumberland, the precincts and the mail ballots were totaled. The ones on the (state Board of Elections) Web site are now correct.”
Mail ballots are usually counted by the state Board of Elections in the days following an election, according to Cumberland Town Clerk Sandra Giovanelli.
“In the last seven years, I’ve never had mail ballot results on the same night (as an election),” she said. “To our surprise, they (the state Board of Elections) did them last night while we were doing ours.
“We were feeding in the information at the same time. The information just crossed. The computer accepted their mail ballot results, but didn’t accept ours. When the report ran the first time, it only reported the mail ballots.”
After much anticipation, the final results are now in.
With no Republican opponent and with 3,116 votes received Tuesday, incumbent Town Council President James T. Higgins of 25 Rhode Island Ave. is guaranteed one of two available seats on the council.
Higgins, council president for the past two terms, is a lawyer and former member of the Cumberland School Committee. He is a graduate of Providence College, a trustee of the Boys and Girls Club of Cumberland and Lincoln and a member of the Knights of Columbus and the Democratic Town Committee.
An undetermined race was reported for the second available at-large seat on the Town Council. Incumbent Bruce A. Lemois received 2,853 votes, while his opponent, James N. McLaughlin, received 2,850, a difference of only three.
The state’s Board of Elections was still counting provisional ballots as of Wednesday, which could change the outcome of this race. Those ballots should be counted by Friday or early next week. Either candidate could also request a recount.
Lemois, past president of the Berkeley Fire District, is seeking his second term in office. He is employed as an operations manager for ASI Inc. in East Providence. He has attended Northeastern University in Boston.
McLaughlin, an Army veteran of the Vietnam War, is a retired auto mechanic. He is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and a grand knight of the Knights of Columbus.
A Democratic and Republican Primary was held Tuesday for the District 5 race.
Incumbent Mia A. Ackerman won the Democratic Primary with 908 votes. Her opponent, Theodore R. Vecchio Jr., received 275.
Ackerman, who is running for her second term in office, is a self-employed real-estate title examiner and a former member of the town Juvenile Hearing Board. She is a 1983 graduate of W.C. Mepham High School in Bellmore, N.Y., and a graduate of the State University of New York (SUNY), Binghamton.
Winning the Republican Primary was Mark G. Dosdourian with 34 votes. His opponent, Christine M. Avella, received 11.
Dosdourian, who is endorsed by the Republican Town Committee, is a project manager for a survey and septic system design company in Cumberland. He is a 1980 graduate of the University of Rhode Island.
Ackerman will now face off against Dosdourian in the November General Election. The winner will be elected to the District 5 seat on the council.
With no Republican opponents, incumbent Antonio J. Albuquerque was the victor for the District 1 seat with 449 votes. His opponent, Thomas Paul Tougas, received 284.
Robert Dias, who dropped out of the race but was still listed on Tuesday’s ballot, received 99 votes.
Albuquerque is the owner of the Third Base Bar and Sports Grill on High Street. He has served as president of Club Juventude Lusitana, a former member of the town Planning Board and an organizer for the Run for Kids benefit race and the Phantom Farms Road Race.
Incumbent Kelley Nickson-Morris, a lawyer for a Providence firm, also arose victorious from Tuesday’s primary with 627 votes. Finishing in second and third were James C. Hartke, who received 292 votes, and Paul Simoes, who received 170.
With no Republican opponent, Nickson-Morris will return to the council. She is the vice chair of the Board of Licensing and former member and chair of the Cumberland Zoning Board of Appeals.