Port Chester Certifies Election Results, No Recount Sought

The Port Chester village Board of Trustees on Thursday certified the results of the village elections and the deadline, without any of the candidates in the elections calling for a recount.

Trustee Bart Didden, who on election night said he would seek a recount, did not make such a request after he remained down by 33 votes on Thursday. Didden was among the board members who certified the election results in a special board meeting Thursday evening.

Didden, along with Mayor Dennis Pilla, a Democrat, were the only two out of six incumbents seeking re-election who were not returned to office. However, both Pilla and Didden said they would likely remain active in some way in local community affairs.

The results were certified after 24 affidavit ballots were opened, inspected and counted at noon Thursday. The ballots were checked by Port Chester Village Clerk Janusz Richards with candidates from the election - including Didden - witnessing the process in a conference room at Village Hall.

After the review, candidates had until 5 p.m. to file a request for a recount of the ballots from the election, which including voting on Tuesday and five days of advance voting last week. The election, which only brought out 26 percent of the voters, led to Port Chester real estate broker and chairman of the village Industrial Development Agency Neil Pagano being selected as the new mayor.

As the election results were certified Thursday night, Pilla suggested that the village examine the election and the voter education process to learn more about voting habits. He raised the issue because more than 200 people who cast ballots in the election failed to cast a vote in the mayoral race, and about 8 percent of voters in the trustees race did not cast all six of the ballots for trustees.

Pilla suggested there was some confusion among voters on how to vote and how many ballots they had to cast. In Port Chester's election system, voters had one ballot for mayor and they had six ballots for trustees. However, the village's cumulative voting system allows voters to cast their trustee ballots any way they want - meaning they could cast more than one vote, or all their six votes, for one candidate in the trustees race.

Port Chester Village Clerk Janusz Richards, who oversee the elections, said there were not sinificant problems with the voting during the advance voting or on Tuesday, Election Day. He said there was a minor mechanical problem with one voting machine on Tuesday, but that was fixed at the polling place.

Richards said the final cost of the election has not been tallied, but village officials estimate that the cost will come in at more than $200,000, which included the election and voter outreach efforts. Village officials also noted there were no problems cited during the voting by officials of the U.S. Department of Justice, who have been working with Port Chester to monitor its elections under a federal court consent decree.

Here's the updated tally for the election, in which about 24 percent of Port Chester's registered voters participated:

Mayor

Neil J. Pagano 1,593 (W)

Dennis G. Pilla 1,356

Trustee

Luis Marino 2,937 (W)

Daniel U. Brakewood 2,504 (W)

Gene Ceccarelli 2,147 (W)

Saverio Terenzi 1,822 (W)

Gregory Adams 1,657 (W)

Joseph D. Kenner 1,632 (W)

Bart Didden 1,599

Francis Ferrara 1,590

Ricardo Dos Anjos 1,168

John W. Reavis Jr. 443

The affidavit ballots that were opened on Thursday were filed by voters at polling places because their was a question about their voter regisration. Using this format, the voter can still cast a ballot but it is kept separate from other ballots until elections officials can confirm the voter is indeed properly registered.