The Rhode Island Board of Elections will review recount requests received in four state legislative races on Thursday. (Jocelyn Jackson/Rhode Island Current)
The state elections board received recount requests for four state legislative races by its Tuesday afternoon deadline, Christopher Hunter, a board spokesperson, confirmed via text.
The Rhode Island Board of Elections is slated to consider the requests at its meeting at 9:15 a.m. on Thursday at its Cranston offices. The meeting will also be streamed via the board’s YouTube page. Approved requests authorize the board to conduct a manual re-feeding of ballots into optical scan voting equipment.
The four legislative seats in question are House Districts 15, 21, and 66 and Senate District 29. The recounts won’t change the power balance of the 113-seat Rhode Island General Assembly, which remains solidly under Democratic control.
Based on preliminary results from the Nov. 5 election — including leading candidates in the four races in question — Democrats hold 64 seats in the 75-seat House of Representatives, and 34 of 38 Senate seats.
The closest legislative contest under recount request is for Cranston’s House District 15, where Republican Chris Paplauskas leads Democrat Maria Bucci by 30 votes as of Nov. 7. The open seat was held by Republican Rep. Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung, who declined to seek reelection to make her unsuccessful run for Cranston mayor.
An open seat in Warwick’s House District 21 ended with a 90-vote difference between Republican Marie Hopkins and Democrat James McElroy. Hopkins leads McElroy as of Nov, 7 in the race to replace outgoing Democrat Rep. Camille Vella-Wilkinson.
The margin is much wider between Barrington Rep. Jennifer Boylan and Republican challenger Janine Wolf. Boylan amassed nearly 65% of votes to Wolf’s 35% in her reelection bid to represent House District 66, straddling Barrington and East Providence.
Typically the elections board only authorizes recounts in close contests.
In races with 20,000 or fewer votes cast, the losing candidate must trail by 2% or 200 votes, whichever is less, to meet recount thresholds, according to state law.
Wolf, who submitted the recount request, could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.
The only Senate contest in question, for Warwick’s Senate District 29, features Republican Sen. Anthony DeLuca and Democratic challenger Peter Appollonio Jr. Appollonio leads DeLuca by 67 votes as of Nov. 7.
Recount requests were also submitted for town or city council races in Barrington, Richmond, Warwick and Woonsocket, and for Pawtucket School Committee.
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