Carrie Jones

May 07, 2025

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SOUTHWEST HARBOR—Former Southwest Harbor Select Board member James Vallette has rescinded his request for a recount, Wednesday morning. The request came Tuesday night after he lost by just one vote to Dan Norwood.

Norwood received 203 votes and Vallette received 202 votes in the four-way contest for two select board seats. Current Vice Chair Natasha Johnson gathered the most votes (226) and returns. Tom Benson received 198 votes. Our story about the recount and other election results is here.

In an email to Town Clerk Jennifer LaHaye, Wednesday morning, Vallette wrote, “I have read up on the science of optical voting machine scanning. In Minnesota and Nebraska, the accuracy rate was greater than 99.99%, or less than one in ten thousand. This means that it is extremely unlikely (less than a 4% chance) that there would be a shift of one vote.”

Vallette continued, “I don’t want to put everyone through all that work for a hand count for that very low possibility (and may introduce its own errors). I hereby withdraw my request for a recount.”

He thanked the staff for a great election and said it was an honor to serve. He also congratulated both Johnson and Norwood.

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