|
Lowe to face Hamilton in N.S. |
|
|
Tuesday, 09 September 2008 |
|
By JOSEPH FITZGERALD NORTH SMITHFIELD – Incumbent Town Administrator Robert B. Lowe and opponent Paulette D. Hamilton emerged as the victors in Tuesday's non-partisan runoff election for town administrator and will now face off against one another in November.
Voters going to the polls Tuesday were given the task of narrowing the field of four candidates vying for the town administrator post to two. Lowe and Hamilton came out on top with the two highest vote tallies, which earned them a spot on the Nov. 8 ballot. Hamilton was the high vote getter with 544 votes, followed by Lowe with 464 votes. Coming in third was candidate Donald Gagnon with 370 votes, followed by Ernest H. Alter with 255 votes.About 1,500 of the town's registered voters went to the polls, according to Town Clerk Debb Todd."I'm excited that I was elected to the November ballot," said Lowe, adding that "it's good to know who your opponent is.""The campaign now will be about showing the voters the differences between us," he said.Lowe, 62, of 19 Freitas Lane, is seeking a third term as town administrator.Formerly self-employed, he was chairman of the North Smithfield School Committee from 1979 to 1985 and state representative in District 61 and 48 from 1987 to 2004.Lowe said he wasn't surprised Hamilton came out on top with 33 percent of the vote, saying she is part of a group of people who support the schools and that is where most of those votes came from. "There will be 5,000 more people voting in November," he said.Hamilton, 53, of 473 Black Plain Road, could not be reached for comment last night. She has been president of Hamilton and Associates Consulting for 20 years and was assistant vice president of marketing at Marquette Credit Union. Until recently she was an administrative assistant for the North Smithfield Police Department. She is director of the North Smithfield Prevention Task Force.Gagnon expressed his "deepest gratitude" to all residents who came out and voted. Gagnon, of 9 Sayles Road, is retired. He currently serves as chairman of the North Smithfield Conservation Commission, chairman of the town's Ordinance Review Committee and is a member of the Board of Directors for the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council.“Regardless of which candidate they voted for, it is far more important that people took the time and effort to understand the issues and candidates and then cast your vote in the polling booth," he said. “In what seems to be an era of apathy and complacency, the residents who helped formulate the decisions made today have the best interest of the entire community in mind and should be lauded for their participation.”“I have stated my positions and qualifications and the voters have made their selections. While I am saddened by the loss, I am not at all bitter or hurt,” he said. “In November, the voters will have two strong candidates to select from and can chose the one they feel is best suited to lead the town on what I hope will be a new and vigorous direction of growth and financial stability.”“Although I have been serving the community for over 30 years in various capacities, this was my first foray into the political arena, so the loss is not something that I did not think could happen," Gagnon added. "I think I ran a dignified and honest campaign and I think that was the proper way to approach it. It was quite an experience, but the loss will give me an opportunity to reflect on the process and also free up some of my retirement time for more family oriented activity. I congratulate the winners and wish them both the best of luck in the general election."Alter, 71, of 600 Victory Highway, said he was surprised by the results, considering how well he did in the polls when he ran against Lowe in the 2006 election. Lowe won the contest with 542 votes (54 percent) to Alter’s 461 (46 percent).Alter said he was particularly surprised by Hamilton's showing. "It doesn't make much sense. Quite frankly, I'm a little non-plussed. I don't think she has the academics and she really hasn't been active in town. I guess the people get who they vote for.""I think politics in North Smithfield has come down to who can spend the most money the fastest," he said.Both North Smithfield and Burrillville were experiencing technological glitches with their computerized voting machines Tuesday, which meant election officials weren't able to transmit data from the voting machines at their respective town halls.Electronic voting machines contain a memory chip and a removable memory card. When voters cast their ballot, votes are recorded to the chip and the removable memory card. At the end of an election, poll workers at each of the precincts remove the memory card and take it to a tabulation center, where the cards are loaded onto a computer and the votes are tabulated to produce unofficial election results.The problem in North Smithfield and Burrillville is that once the memory cards were loaded into a computer at the town halls, the information could not be transmitted – a problem that was detected during practice runs well before the polls even openedAs a result, election officials from both towns had to physically deliver the memory cartridges (similar to a VCR tape) from each of the precincts to the Rhode Island Board of Elections headquarters in Providence, where they were fed into a machine there and tallied.Robert Kando, executive director of the Rhode Island Board of Elections, blamed the glitch on new phones lines that were recently installed in the area, saying some of those lines were not compatible with the lines used by the Rhode Island Board of Elections.Kando said the time it would have normally taken to tally the results locally at the town halls would be delayed by about 25 minutes or the time it took to physically drive the memory cartridges to Providence. |
|
Last Updated ( Thursday, 11 September 2008 )
|
Horoscope