AUBURN — Candidates for Auburn’s third seat on the Twin Cities’ charter commission will scrutinize the narrow vote Friday morning.
City Clerk Sue Clements Dallaire said she’s scheduled a ballot recount for the third seat on the commission at 9:30 a.m. Friday in Auburn Hall.
Verne Paradie, who lost that seat to Holly Lasagna in the June 10 election by six votes, requested the recount.
Dallaire said she is asking each candidate to bring four people to act as their official counters. The eight counters will break into four groups, with one representative for each candidate. Each group will scrutinize ballots 50 at a time, agree on total votes for each candidate in that group.
The final results will be tallied and an official winner will be declared, Dallaire said.
“I’m expecting it to take at least a couple of hours,” Dallaire said.
Paradie and Lasagna are two of six candidates who vied for Auburn’s three seats on the commission. According to official results, Paradie came in fourth with 1,042 votes.
Lasagna claimed 1,048, winning third place and the seat.
Chip Morrison claimed the most votes, with 1,301. Michael Beaulieu collected 1,225 votes to get a seat as well.
The three, along with three Lewiston representatives elected last week, should begin meeting later this month to begin drafting a charter and an overall plan to consolidate Lewiston and Auburn into one city.
Dallaire said she is waiting until the recount is finished to begin swearing in the commissioners.
In Lewiston, City Clerk Kathy Montejo swore in the first of that city’s three commissioners Wednesday. Chantel Pettengill was sworn in just after 1 p.m. in the clerk’s office.
“I have not heard from the other candidates yet,” Montejo said. “They don’t need to make an appointment but they do need to make sure one of us — either myself or (Deputy City Clerk) Kelly (Brooks) — is here.”
Lewiston voters selected Pettengill, Eugene Geiger and Lucien Gosselin to be their representatives to the commission.
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