The Rhode Island Board of Elections (BOE) took up candidate requests for recounts in nine races. After the recounts, the BOE affirmed Tuesday night’s election results in eight of the nine contested races, leaving the list of winners and losers unchanged.

In the House District 58 where Cherie Cruz beat George Hovarth 367 to 323, Horvath brought two lawyers to argue against the validity of the results. The BOE continued the matter to Thursday.

Under the law the BOE determined that two of the requests, from Michael Carreiro in Senate District 29 and Santos Javier in Providence City Council Ward 15, did not qualify for a recount, thereby affirming the Democratic Primary wins of Jennifer Rourke and Oscar Vargas respectively.

In two cases the BOE approved a re-feed of the ballots, that is, all the ballots cast in the race were put through the machines a second time to verify the count. Members of the BOE are watching the count to adjudicate any ballots that may have been rejected by the machine to see if the voter’s intentions were clear.

The two races that qualified for a re-feed were in Providence City Council races, Wards 3 and 12. Both were open seats with no incumbent running.

• The Ward 3 re-feed was requested by Corey Jones, who trailed Sue Anderbois by 28 votes after election night. Anderbois won 1245 to 1217. BOE Chair Diane Mederos initially and accidentally reversed these totals, but Anderbois did prevail.
• The Ward 12 re-feed was requested by Belen Florez, who trailed Althea Graves by 13 votes after election night. Graves won, after the re-feed, 282 to 270.

Five races qualified for a re-read of the voting machine memory cartridge. These memory cartridges are pulled from the archives and re-read for accuracy. These races are:

• Providence City Council Ward 4 in which Justin Roias beat Joseph Casoli for an open seat by 43 votes. Justin Roias won, after the re-read, 574 to 531.
• Providence City Council Ward 10 where incumbent Councilmember Pedro Espinal beat Natalia Rosa Sosa by 51 votes. Pedro Espinal won, after the re-read, 661 to 610.
• Providence City Council Ward 14 in which Shelley Peterson edged out Andrew Poyant for an open seat by 28 votes. Shelley Peterson won, after the re-read, 450 to 422.
• House District 57, where Brandon Voas beat incumbent James McLaughlin by 42 votes. Voas won, after the re-read, 674 to 641.
• House District 58 where Cherie Cruz beat George Hovarth for an open seat by 40 Votes. Cherie Cruz won, after the re-read, 367 to 323. Attorneys William Delaney and Margaret Hovarth, who is George Hovarth’s wife, representing Hovarth, asked for an exception to this ruling because he claimed that the numbers are not certifiable. The arguments presented by Hovarth’s attorney have no basis, and the BOE certified the election results at 4:08pm!

For the record:

• Jennifer Rourke won the Senate District 29 primary. Roarke faces Republican Anthony DeLuca II in the General Election.
• Brandon Voas won the House District 57 primary. Voas now faces Republican Dennis Hurd in the General.
• Sue Anderbois won the Providence City Council District 3 primary. Anderbois faces independent Mike Fink in the General.
• Justin Roias won the Providence City Council District 4 primary.
• Pedro Espinalwon the Providence City Council District 10 primary.
• Althea Graves won the Providence City Council District 12 primary. Graves faces Seangsouk Keobouthanh in the General Election.
• Shelley Peterson won the Providence City Council District 14 primary. Peterson faces Ronald Iacobbo in the General Election.
• Oscar Vargas won the Providence City Council District 15 primary.

[Note that in the photo above, the last column should read 5%, not .5%.]