Ellsworth is going to postpone the swearing in of new city councilors in order to conduct a recount in a close election.
The top five finishers in the race for three seats were within 76 votes of each other. The candidates who finished in second, third and fourth place all came in within four votes of each other’s tallies.
The recount will be conducted at City Hall on Friday, Nov. 14, and, if needed, will extend into Saturday, Nov. 15, city officials said Thursday.
The fourth-place candidate, John Linnehan, lost by two votes — 1,227 versus 1,229 votes for Marinna Smith. Carol Patterson-Martineau, who finished in second place in the race for three seats, received 1,231 votes — four votes ahead of Linnehan, according to the city’s unofficial results.
The candidate with the most votes, Patrick Shea, received 1,283 votes while the fifth-place finisher, Eric Marichal, received 1,207 — only 20 votes behind Linnehan. The bottom two candidates, Earl Awalt and Timothy Carter, received 1,101 and 766 votes, respectively.
Linnehan requested a recount Tuesday evening, after the city released the unofficial results of the election. The two-vote loss is the closest Linnehan has ever come to winning election to the City Council, despite runs in 2016 and every year for the past five years.
The meeting to swear in new councilors, which had been scheduled for Monday, Nov. 10, is being postponed because of the recount. New councilors whose election wins will be determined by the recount instead will be sworn in on Monday, Nov. 17, immediately prior to the next regular City Council meeting, city officials said.
“Under the City Charter and Maine state law, the current City Council incumbents continue to
serve until the new Council is officially seated, should any emergency actions be necessary,” said Amy Kenney, the city’s spokesperson.
Those incumbents include the three councilors who chose not to seek re-election this year — Michelle Beal, Tammy Mote and Jon Stein.
The last time a recount was conducted in an Ellsworth City Council race was in 2022, when Stein was elected after beating Linnehan by 56 votes. In that recount, Linnehan gained only one extra vote.
