Pelham officials recounted more than 3,500 votes for the School Board election after the losing candidate called for a recount, citing ballot machine failures throughout voting on Tuesday, March 11.

It took about two hours to count all those votes again Tuesday, March 18, according to School District Moderator Ken Dunne, but when it was all said and done, the spread between the two candidates was actually six votes more than what the School District recorded the first time around, in favor of incumbent Linda Mahoney.

At the polls, Pelham voters elected Mahoney by a slim margin of 46 votes, with Perry receiving a total of 1,746 votes and Mahoney getting 1,792.

Perry, who served one term on the Pelham School Board from 2001 to 2004, said the 1 percent difference in the voting totals between him and Mahoney, combined with what he thought were mistakes made by the machine, amounted to a need to recount all the votes.

“The machine did have several points during the day when it was down,” Perry said.

Pelham School Board Chairman Bruce Couture said the board canceled its Thursday, March 13, meeting because of the recount.

“It probably won’t change the outcome, but it is close enough to warrant it,” Couture said prior to the recount.

At the end of the recount, Mahoney won with 1,804 votes over Perry’s 1,753 votes, this time a 51 vote spread.

Prior to the recount, Mahoney said she was anxious to get back to business on the board and was not offended that Perry had asked for the recount. But she said if she had been in Perry’s shoes, she would have forgone the recount.

“It’s his right to ask for a recount,” she said. “I would certainly hope that we don’t have a 50-vote margin of error,” she said, referring to the town’s original ballot count.

Perry said he ran against Mahoney because he was unsatisfied with where the board has been going, and became a contender so Pelham voters could make the decision.

“I wanted to give the town a choice,” Perry said.

Mahoney was sworn into her School Board seat immediately following the recount.

“I’m happy it’s done, and I’m looking forward to getting back to work on the board,” Mahoney said.

Dunne disagreed with Perry’s assessment that the ballot machine was not functioning right, and said the discrepancies could have come from people not inserting their ballots correctly. The machine kicks them back if that happens, making it appear that it’s not working properly, he said. There was also a recount last year for the open School Board seat, which Lorraine Dube and Cindy Kyzer vied for. The recount ended with Kyzer winning the position.