A dayslong recount of more than 26,000 ballots in a contested Worcester City Council race ended up not changing the results of the election earlier this month.
City workers and volunteers conducted the recount Saturday and Sunday, evaluating every ballot to ensure that ovals were filled properly. At-Large City Council candidate Jermoh Kamara had requested the hand recount after finishing 23 votes behind incumbent Morris Bergman on election night.
The retallying saw Bergman’s lead grow to 32 votes, just enough to win Worcester’s final at-large seat. Bergman said he can now finally look forward to serving his seventh term on council.
“It’s been two weeks of not having the election over and rather still be in election mode,” he said. “It’s important for there to be certainty without anybody having any suspicions that things weren’t done above board.”
The recount at the North High School gymnasium involved more than a hundred election workers and volunteers at 30 different stations going through ballots. City Clerk Nikolin Vangjeli said the process amounted to reviewing over 300,000 ovals from voters’ ballots in the At-Large City Council race.
Kamara and Bergman had supporters at each table observing the retallying to ensure every vote was counted appropriately. The dozens of observers were able to dispute whether certain votes counted depending on the way the ballots were filled out.
The final results were nearly identical to those on election night: Kamara finished seventh out of 12 candidates for Worcester’s six At-Large City Council positions. She secured 9,347 votes compared to the 9,379 by Bergman, who finished sixth.
Kamara — a former Worcester School Committee member — struck a positive tone after the recount. She called the process an exercise of democracy and thanked everyone who helped review ballots. She added that even though she lost the race, she’ll seek to hold Worcester leadership accountable by showing up to city meetings and working with community groups on issues like housing affordability.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she said. “I’m gonna continue to be active in Worcester, and I look forward to running again in a couple of years.”
The end of the recount finalizes the results of an election that shook up Worcester’s city government. Half a dozen new candidates won seats on City Council. Bergman was among the five incumbents who retained their positions.
