A Select Board election in Clifton is still undecided after two previously-uncounted absentee ballots were challenged and sent to Maine’s highest court for a second time.
The ballots, which were opened during a meeting Wednesday but not certified, will flip the outcome of a single-year Select Board seat if the court finds they were cast legally.
Cynthia Grant, a former town manager, beat Steve Armenia by a single vote in Clifton’s March 24 election. The following day, a ballot clerk found two unopened and uncounted absentee ballots. The ballots were found to be taken out by Gerald Folster, a candidate for a three-year Select Board seat, for two of his family members — breaking a state law that prohibits a candidate from taking out an absentee ballot for anyone but themselves.
Patti and Melissa Folster voted via the ballots. Although their votes were not announced at the meeting, an updated vote count for the single-year position was. With the added ballots, Armenia had received 115 votes compared to Grant’s 114, meaning both votes were for Armenia.
Despite the updated vote tally showing Armenia as the winner, Grant will continue to serve on the Select Board until the votes are certified following the court’s decision.
When asked for a comment, Armenia, a Buffalo, New York native, said; “The guy from away won.”
Both ballots had to be counted because of a Maine Supreme Judicial Court decision from a previous challenge to the Folsters’ right to vote by Select Board member Gregory Newell.
Although Clifton’s attorney Stephen Wagner said the ballots were taken out illegally at a previous meeting, the court decided the challenge was missing evidence and not entirely filled out. The decision required the votes to be counted even if they were challenged again.
Before they were opened, Clifton resident Jeff Niles challenged the Folsters’ right to vote.
Niles brought a prepared affidavit, but had to make changes to it because his reason for challenging the ballots had changed.
Initially, Niles wanted to challenge the ballots because he didn’t want the two voters’ choices to be disclosed, but he did not have the chance to challenge before the names on the ballots were read because of the court’s decision.
“Now, two votes from two people are publicly known. That’s not right, especially in a town as contentious as this,” Niles said after the meeting.
Through social media and town gossip, many Clifton residents knew who had cast the ballots and which candidate they voted for before they were opened.
Despite the names being announced, Niles decided to continue his challenge of the ballots because they were applied for incorrectly, he said.
When reviewing the absentee applications, Niles saw that the applications weren’t signed, he said. If the ballots were requested by mail or in person, Maine law requires a signature from the absentee voter or from the immediate family member making the request.
The challenge will be sent to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday and will be reviewed as soon as possible, Wagner said.
Despite this election taking up much of the attention of the town, the Select Board will await the court’s decision and “not let it define us,” Select Board Chair John Williams said.
Once the court has made its decision, Williams will “be encouraging the rest of the Board to consider doing a full election process review to prevent something this costly and divisive from happening again,” he said.
Before the election took place, Clifton residents said their town is divided because of political differences between neighbors and Select Board members.
Although the election and subsequent challenges may have divided neighbors, residents are still able to work toward their common goals, Williams said.
“Despite recent headlines, like most small towns in Maine, we have an amazing community with some really great residents who largely just want to end the division and recent issues and keep taxes as low as possible while maintaining basic services. I know if we work together, we can stabilize things and get down to business to move the community forward,” he said.
