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November 21, 2009

Peabody's Driscoll wins recount by 2 votes

By Adam Swift

Correspondent

PEABODY | Ward 4 Councilor Bob Driscoll doubled his election night victory total in Saturday’s recount, defeating challenger Jeff Grayson by two votes, 1,150-1,148.

Driscoll topped Grayson by a single vote on election night on Nov. 3, setting the recount process in motion.

After being declared the winner in the recount, Driscoll said he was relieved and happy to serve the residents of Ward 4 for a 12th term.

“It's been very intense, but it's been a good learning experience,” he said about the recount process. “I enjoy my work and I enjoy the people, and I want to keep helping them with their problems.”

During the three-plus hour recount process, Driscoll and Grayson talked to each other several times, and there were no hard feelings about the race or the result.

“Jeff ran a good, hard, positive race,” Driscoll said.

Grayson also had kind words for Driscoll, and he said he believes Ward 4 will be in good hands for the next two years.

“He's a nice guy and he has a nice family,” Grayson said. “I had never really had the chance to meet him before this race.”

Grayson said he will consider running for office again.

“I'd like to consider how I can best serve the city and be part of the conversation,” he said. “I had a great time knocking on all the doors in Ward 4, and I've increased my circle of friends one hundredfold.”

The recount itself was a rare process, even in a city with as colorful a political history as Peabody.

City Clerk Tim Spanos said the count went well, although there was some last-minute debate over the fate of two missing ballots in the ward's third precinct.

Grayson said he was satisfied with the result and would not make any further challenges.

“I think we took this to its logical conclusion,” he said. “I certainly think I owed it to all my supporters.”

Six teams of vote counters went through each ballot as two observers from each camp stood by to challenge any potentially questionable ballots.

Driscoll observer and local Democratic Party activist Michael Schulze noted that the city's new Optiscan ballot system is more efficient than the punch cards used in the last recount in 1999, when incumbent Bill Toomey lost his councilor-at-large seat to Jim Liacos.

Several elected officials were on hand at City Hall to witness the historic recount Saturday morning, including Ward 1 Councilor Barry Osborne, who was also involved in a close race on Election Day.

Osborne said the close calls for incumbents this year could be the result of some younger candidates looking to get involved in city government.

“It's probably a good thing,” he said. “It gets us out there working harder and less likely to take things for granted.”

The last time a race was decided by one vote in Peabody was 1940, Spanos found after reviewing city election records. Joseph O'Keefe defeated John Murphy, 4,771 to 4,770, in the race for mayor. O'Keefe also prevailed in a recount, 4,772 to 4,764.

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