By sundown Tuesday, Pittsfield had shown Washington, D.C., the right way to do things.
The town proved that, based on common sense, sometimes an Election Day recount is needed. And also that votes could, quite possibly, be recounted with warmth and a common goal and a procedure, not hostility and divisive chaos.
That’s what we had in Pittsfield. The town hand-picked three solid-as-granite citizens to recount votes. They were monitored by the town’s moderator, the town clerk and the select board.
And by 9 p.m., Pittsfield declared officially that Article 19 on the Town Warrant had, indeed, failed. The one-vote margin, initially declared by computer, stood up against the laser-locked focus and quick fingers of the three-person, volunteer panel.
No, 345.
Yes, 344.
Again.
It means money for that new dump truck will have to wait.
“Certainly, if viewed through the voting process in a town in New Hampshire, it’s kind of the last vestige left for small-town politics,” said recount voter Scott Brown, a local insurance company manager and former school board member, who is not the former ambassador to New Zealand. “And given what we went through over the last few months, this at least shows how the process works and that it can work.”
Some there were unsure if they’d ever been part of a recount before. They were positive they had never seen this many votes connected to such a narrow margin.
No one at the town hall on a warm night had any illusions that the $65,000 price tag, to be banked and used later for the dump truck, was on the same level as charges of a rigged presidential election.
But Brown and fellow re-counters Faith Whittier and Jennifer Tyrell accepted the responsibility, required by law when vote tallies are this close.
With the select board monitoring the procedure, and the town clerk and moderator organizing boxes and ballots, neighbors worked together to ensure a fair election.
It didn’t matter that the dump truck was not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. As Whittier said when asked if a new truck was necessary, “I don’t really care,” cracking up the room.
“I don’t have a strong opinion on that, but thanks for asking,” she continued. “The first thing I thought of when I heard about the vote was, ‘What are we doing this recount for? A dump truck?’ ”
This, of course, was more about the procedure and trust than a dump truck. About doing it right, with transparency and calm.
“It was just local government at work,” said Tyrell, a former ballot clerk in town. “You have to check it, and bringing that back to the public brings comfort to the rest of the community. It’s a cool thing to be apart of.”
Town meetings are uniquely New Hampshire, unspoiled, with a granite foundation.
And the fact that Tyrell once had a kindergarten teacher named Faith Whittier only added to the purity and generational rhythm that Pittsfield has.
And more than anyone, Dr. Cedric Dustin, a recently retired dentist, exemplified the relaxed atmosphere of Tuesday night, sporting a silver ponytail and relaxed jeans.
He grew up in Bow attending town meetings with his parents. He remembered when all votes were counted by hand.
He’s called Pittsfield home, however, for 36 years.
“People thought I was crazy, but I’ve always enjoyed town meetings,” Dustin said. “Town meeting has meant government in New Hampshire for well over 100 years. My father always volunteered and we kind of learned that that is what you did.”
He was part of a group of 10 that gathered at the historic Town Hall Tuesday night, riffling through hundreds of ballots, making sure yellow school ballots weren’t mixed with white town ballots.
Residents had entered voting booths on Election Day unconcerned about that particular article, No. 19. Soon, they learned their town was split down the middle like few articles Pittsfield had ever seen. The need for a lower tax rate topped the need for a dump truck.
By one vote. Surely, in this case, a recount made sense.
“I have always felt the machines here to be entirely accurate, so I wasn’t really surprised,” Dustin said. “The selectmen told me later that they just wanted confirmation, and they got it.”
Added Brown, “The stakes (in D.C) were so much higher compared to what we did.”
Then he clarified. “I don’t know if any election is less important than any other,” he said. “We just have to have confidence that they are correct.”