Dover results disputed: School board candidate says machine was faulty

The York Dispatch ^ | 11/10/2005 | Christina Kauffman

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Residents have said they just want this election to be over, similar to the sentiment of many Americans after the 2000 presidential election.

But in the Dover Area School District, Tuesday's election is a bit more complicated.

There are no "hanging chads," but York County election officials are inspecting a faulty voting machine at Friendship Community Church on Fox Run Road that counted only one vote for incumbent school board candidate James Cashman.

John Scott, York County director of elections, said this morning that officials are looking into it, but declined further comment. "There's obviously something wrong," Cashman said yesterday.

The machine registered "001" votes for Cashman, who said other candidates running on the same platform received about 100 votes at the machine.

Tuesday, Cashman and seven other board
incumbents were narrowly defeated by eight members of Dover CARES (Citizens Actively Reviewing Educational Strategies).

Came in fifth: Cashman was running for a four-year seat on the board. Winning four-year seats were Dover CARES candidates Bernadette Reinking, Terry Emig, Herbert McIlvaine Jr. and Bryan Rehm. Dover CARES candidates oppose a statement in biology class about intelligent design.

Cashman and incumbent board members Sherrie Leber, Edward Rowand and Alan Bonsell were also seeking four-year seats.

Cashman finished 99 votes behind Bryan Rehm, the Dover CARES candidate receiving the fewest votes for one of four four-year seats, according to unofficial election night vote totals.

Rehm took 2,625 votes, compared to Cashman's 2,526 votes.

"Voters got cheated," Cashman said. "I'm not trying to make a mountain out of a molehill, but this is what happened."

Cashman said he has spoken to election officials, who are inspecting the machine to determine how it malfunctioned and whether an accurate count can be salvaged.

"Election officials are trying to determine what to do," he said. "It's obvious the voters are being cheated if they don't correct it, so they have to come up with something."

Cashman suggested calling former presidential candidate Al Gore for advice.

"It's not like I got 70 votes and I'm contesting it. I," Cashman said. "I got one vote on a machine that was obviously screwed up."

Judy McIlvaine was in the church as a poll watcher for Dover CARES when votes were counted. She said as election workers were reading vote counts, most of which were in the high 90s, "They read 001 and there was this sort of collective gasp and we said, 'Can't you just hit retrieve? No,'" McIlvaine said.

She said no one knows what the options are and added, "It's as though it's a soap opera that will never end."

Says motivation is fairness: Adding 100 votes to Cashman's total would place him one vote ahead of Rehm, but he said his motivation is fairness, not politics.

"This is not a plan by me to oust Bryan Rehm," he said. "I think I could have very well done it yesterday if (the machine had counted correctly)."

Rehm could not be reached for comment. The Rehm family's answering machine said its "memory is full" and wasn't accepting messages.

"We've been inundated with calls," said newly elected CARES candidate Larry Gurreri, who won a two-year term along with CARES candidates Judy McIlvaine and Patricia Dapp.

Incumbent board members seeking those seats were Eric Riddle, Ronald Short and Sheila Harkins. Seventy-eight votes separated Gurreri, who finished third, and Riddle, who finished fourth.

In the closest race -- for the two-year seat of former board member Bill Buckingham's unfulfilled term -- Dover CARES candidate Phil Herman edged school board member David Napierskie by 26 votes; 2,542 to 2,516.

With the exception of Cashman's machine complaint, no other protests have been lodged with the election office in the Dover Area School Board race.

And Gurreri said he doubts the result of the four-year seat election will change.

"We're watching and waiting," he said. "If there's something wrong with the machine, there's something wrong with the machine. How are they gonna prove that there was something wrong with the machine?"

"Of all the things to happen..." Gurreri said in a tired voice.

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