By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET — With a final tally that lessened by just one vote, a ballot recount did not change the last Tuesday’s election day results in the City Council at-large race in the Democratic primary.

The top three finishers, in order of votes earned, are still Albert J. Vitali Jr., Thomas E. Hodge, and Lorenzo C. Tetreault. These three Democrats will face Republican candidate Joel M. Tirrell and independent candidate Michael W. Newman in the November general election, with the top three vote-getters winning a seat on the City Council. 
The recount had been requested by John S. Baxter Jr., a School Committee member and endorsed Democrat who finished in fourth place, 19 votes behind Tetreault. Baxter said he had asked for the recount after receiving two different sets of figures on election night, one from the city’s Board of Canvassers and another from the state Board of Elections, which showed a much closer margin between him and Tetreault.
According to Robert Kando, executive director of the state Board of Elections, the recount showed that Baxter gained one vote, changing his final total to 2,436, as opposed to an earlier tally of 2,435. This left him still 18 votes behind Tetreault, whose final tally remained the same, at 2,454.
Kando said that Vitali and Hodge each lost one vote from their original totals, finishing with 2,815 for Vitali and 2,598 for Hodge. The final total for Raymond J. Spooner, who ended up in fifth place, remained unchanged, with 1,933 votes.
Kando said these latest figures include the mail-in ballots which were counted following the primary election.
According to Pawtucket Board of Canvassers Registrar Kenneth Magill, Baxter does not intend to challenge the recount. He also declined to contest the 26 provisional ballots (mail-in) ballots that were disqualified by the Board of Canvassers. Four provisional ballots were included in the final voting count, said Magill.
Baxter told the TIMES on Tuesday that while he is disappointed with his loss, he accepts the results and looks to putting his energy toward his family, and in finishing out the remainder of his School Committee term.

Baxter joked that the only thing he can think of that he might have done differently was “move to the third ward.” He noted that 33 percent of the voting came from the third ward and that he was the only at-large candidate from outside of that precinct.

As a four-year School Committee member and former chairman, Baxter noted that with a few rare exceptions, it has been nearly impossible for a school board member to obtain a City Council seat in the city’s recent history. “I think there is a genuine fear among the electorate that people from the school board will be pro-schools--overly so when it comes to the budget,” said Baxter. “However, next to Dave Coughlin, I like to think I was the most fiscally conservative member of the board for the four years that I’ve been serving,” he said.

Baxter, along with incumbent Councilor Hodge and Tetreault, chairman of the Democratic City Committee, had been the Democratic Party’s endorsed candidates. All three had voiced support for incumbent Mayor James E. Doyle, who is running for re-election against Councilor-at-large Donald R. Grebien.

Vitali, a local businessman and former Ward 3 City Councilor who lost a re-election bid to Councilor Henry Kinch Jr. in 2006, was unendorsed. He is a backer of Grebien.
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