Elections

Judd wants court to preserve ballots in contested Barre election

Barre Municipal Auditorium, where the contested March 2 election was held

By Guy Page

Brian Judd, who is contesting the Barre City Council election he officially lost at City Meeting March 2, tomorrow will seek a court injunction to prevent the City from throwing out the paper ballots after the 90-day deadline expires, he said today. 

Judd (209 votes) lost the Ward 2 two-year seat to Teddy Waszazak (247). As he campaigned outside, more than 30 people approached him to say the voting machines had rejected the ballots one or more times before finally being accepted. asked city officials for a hand recount because two of the voting machines were reportedly rejecting ballots throughout the day. The request was denied. March 17 he filed suit to contest the election in Vermont Superior Court.

By law the City must keep the paper ballots for 90 days after the election. If the City tosses the ballots on June 1, there would be no way to crosscheck the ballot machine totals with a hand recount. Judd’s request for a hand recount has been denied, even though he’s offered to pay for it. 

Judd isn’t alleging wrongdoing on March 2, nor does he insist he won. But he’s convinced the problem with the machines happened. He wants to know if it affected the outcome. 

“The one and only true way to find out that these machines counted the ballots correctly is to count the paper ballots and compare with what the machines counted,” he told Vermont Daily today. “Just because these voting machines accepted these ballots doesn’t mean they counted them.”

“We should want consistency and we should want transparency. And this is the only way – to count the paper ballots and compare that count with the machine count,” Judd said. 

“We’re seeing an example of that right now in Windham NH. They did a machine count and they did a hand count and because of the discrepancies between the hand count and the machine count they then called for a forensic audit of the paper ballots,” Judd said. The Windham hand count shows 200 more votes for three Republican candidates and about 125 less for a Democrat. 

Although Barre City sought to dismiss the suit. Judge Robert Bent declined, saying the City needs to be represented in his court by an attorney, not just the City Clerk. A hearing has been set for May 27. 

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Categories: Elections

10 replies »

  1. Barre City sends the City Clerk to a court hearing and not the City Attorney? Barre City council is more socialist communist than not. The scary Barre isn’t about the drugs, it’s the corrupt politicians and now the communists rooted deep into City Hall. It’s turning into a cesspool and we know who to thank for that now. I wish Brian great success in winning the suit and getting to the Truth. Come next time around, there should be a wave to take out the trash representing our City. Including Peter Anthony and Tommy Waltz.

  2. I support Mr. Judd’s request for transparency. What is the harm of conducting a hand count of the ballots in order to determine if the voting machines corrupted the election’s outcome or not.

  3. If Barre City won’t agree to a recount, there will be a cloud of doubt over their heads. What is there to be afraid of if all went well? I am a citizen of Barre and I support this recount. I’m willing to give my time to help with it as well. If the machines were working properly then the citizens will be confident that the election was fair. If not, then the problem must be fixed. I would feel better having a hand recount to make sure all went well.

  4. Free and Fair Elections in Vermont?
    Show “We The People” the Election Receipts Barre City. If you are so sure the machines are right what do you have to lose? The greater question is about ALL voting machines in Vermont. Are they accurate? Has any City or Town in Vermont had a true audit, a paper ballot counting audit?

  5. YOU GO BRIAN JUDD !!! Thank you for your follow through. Remember The Vermont State Constitution on this subject.

    Article 8. [Elections to be free and pure; rights of voters therein]
    That all elections ought to be free and without corruption, and that all voters, having a sufficient, evident, common interest with, and attachment to the community, have a right to elect officers, and be elected into office, agreeably to the regulations made in this constitution.

    • Exactly. ALL the voting machines should be forensically audited as well as ALL the paper ballots in Vermont. This State is fast onto the communist agenda. Take a look at what the Governor is signing. Take a look at the horrendous S15 Universal Mailed Ballot Bill, read through that thing, NO Safeguards whatsoever. What kind of representative, senator and governor would ever sponsor or vote for such a sham and unlawful Bill as that one? Each elected official has sworn an Oath to uphold the Vermont Constitution, Articles 16 and 56 of the Vermont Constitution.

      Brian Judd We The People are 100% behind you! What we need is a Big Forum for We The People. We need to overturn all this corruption in our State Government.

  6. Seems like you missed that the machines are regularly maintained and checked for any problems prior to elections. The counts have been validated. Brian is just a sore loser and he can’t find a positive way to be involved with constructive work in the community. Funny. I wonder why he left CA. A shame he doesn’t go back. Attacking people who faithfully serve our community does not impress me as being heroic, but a tactic to smear hard working people. What is he doing for work that he has so much time on his hands?

    • If your candidate of choice was cheated out of a legitimate win that would be okay? You are so positive and resolute that our government would never, ever stack the deck to make sure the status quo remained in place? An audit only certifies no cheating, but there are so many against looking behind the curtain, looking at the facts, looking at the proof….no, we can’t have that – we can’t have Truth, we must trust our puppet masters. Life behind the Iron Curtain it shall be!

    • Re-read the article Lily. No one has been attacked. Ask the citizens of Windham NH Lily how well the machines have been maintained. Ask the people that ran for office in Windham NH Lily how well the machines have been maintained. We will have a hand recount of the ballots and we will see how accurate these machines are.