Voting Machine Audit Takes Nine Votes From Marzullo

A state-mandated hand recount of votes cast in the in two of Greenwich’s polling places to determine the accuracy of the new electronic voting machines on Thursday reportedly revealed that Democratic Selectman Drew Marzullo received a “statistically insignificant” nine fewer votes than were originally tabulated by the machines.

According to a report in the Greenwich Time, citing a statement by Republican Registrar Fred DeCaro III, the audit was carried in district’s 5 and 6 as part of a random sampling of voting machine results required by the Secretary of State’s office. About 10 percent of the state, or about 73 polling places, were sampled in the audit.

The hand count of about 1,250 ballots, conducted by a 12 person team of six Democrats and six Republicans, took about three hours according to the report.

The registrars reportedly decided that since the discrepancy was “statistically insignificant” that they wouldn’t bother to take the time to investigate the error — nor did the report offer any speculation as to what might have caused it.

Less the nine votes, Marzullo received 4,809 votes in the Nov. 8 election — while his running mate, John Blankley, who ran for first selectman but got , received 3,293 votes.

As per the town charter, in the Board of Selectmen's race the top three vote getters win seats. , he would have won Marzullo's seat.

There were smaller disrepencies in the votes recorded for some of the other candidates in those districts, the report said.

The potential for electronic voting machine fraud is another, less publicized reason for the random audits.