Paul Bass Photo
Republican Ugonna Eze had a front-row seat Tuesday for a recount of the votes in the Ward 1 election he lost last week to incumbent Democratic Alder Sarah Eidelson. He wasn’t expecting a miracle.
Head Moderator John Cirello (pictured) opened sealed packages of ballots and explained to a small crowd in the basement of the 200 Orange St. government office building why the recount took place: Eidelson, a Yale union employee, had beaten Eze, a Yale senior psychology major, by 17 votes. Any margin under 20 votes automatically triggers a recount under state law. (Eidelson was not present at the recount; some of her supporters were.)
So, after ascertaining that the tallying machine was set at zero, poll workers Dominic Tamaro and Kevin Arnold fed it some 700 ballots.
Meanwhile, Office of Legislative Services staffer Donald Hayden opened a sealed package of “Election Day Registration” or “EDR” ballots, those cast by people registering to vote on Election Day thanks to a law that took effect in 2013. EDR traditionally is believed to favor Democrats. This time around it was Republican Eze’s supporters who lined up to register and vote on Election Day, which is how the margin got so close.
Helen Powell and Lorise Brown tallied the EDR results as Hayden called them out. As on election night, Eze was found to have bested Eidelson 42 to 11 on the EDR votes.
But Eidelson emerged the winner again with an overall total of 386 votes to Eze’s 369, as the poll workers resealed the ballots and a relatively quiet election season’s one dramatic episode came to a formal conclusion.