http://nhregister.com/articles/2011/11/23/news/valley/doc4ecc5f45b7edb502959493.txt
Ballot mistake throws Derby board for a loop: Was father elected, or his son?
DERBY — A single letter is causing confusion as to who will be seated on the Board of Apportionment and Taxation next month.
It’s the difference between a J and an R.
The issue was brought to light by Tony Szewczyk, chairman of the Republican Town Committee.
In a letter this week to Town Clerk Laura A. Wabno, Szewczyk said he had understood that the Democratic Town Committee had intended to nominate James R. Butler to run for the board, not his son, James J. Butler.
James R. Butler was seeking his second, two-year term on the 10-member board.
Szewczyk said the mistake was “especially unfortunate” because 1,526 voters chose the son. In fact, James J. Butler won the most votes of all tax board candidates, he said.
Szewczyk’s letter said the son should take office. He said he consulted with several state officials, including the office of the secretary of the state, and all agreed.
Av Harris, director of communications for Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, said late Tuesday that James J. Butler should be sworn in.
“He was the one who was elected,” Harris said.
The city has two choices, Harris said: James J. Butler is sworn in Dec. 3 and either serves the term or resigns quickly, in which case the city then would follows the charter as to who fills the vacancy.
Szewczyk’s wife, Tax board Chairwoman Judy Szewczyk, said Tuesday night that Section 5 of the city charter says that whenever there is a vacancy of an elected officer on a board, except the school board, members of the Board of Aldermen from the same political party will fill the vacancy.
The Board of Aldermen now has a Republican majority, but will have a Democratic majority after Dec. 3, she said.
“It would be a pretty short term of office for James J. Butler,” Harris said.
Tony Szewczyk had another idea: Don’t swear in anyone for the seat and “allow the normal vacancy rules to apply.”
Democratic Town Committee Chairwoman Sheila Parizo could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening.
Harris acknowledged the situation is “a new one.”
Father and son are well-known in the community.
The elder Butler, 72, retired after teaching 39 years in Seymour public schools and serving 42 years as a supernumerary police officer in the city.
His son, 46, is former fire chief of Paugassett Hook and Ladder and is head of security at Griffin Hospital.
Harris said a Derby registrar of voters told him the Democratic Town Committee sent an endorsement certificate with the name of James J. Butler.
“Whatever information was on the certificate was transferred to the ballot,” he said.
The town committee can endorse anyone it wants, Harris said, but, “You can’t swear in someone who was not elected to the position; you can’t swear in the father when the son was elected.”
The bigger issue, according to aldermanic President Ken Hughes, a Republican, is that the person on the ballot was never nominated by the political party.
The hubbub over what Wabno calls a “spelling error” baffles the elder Butler. “It was just a typographical mistake,” he said. “I was supposed to be elected.”
In fact, he noticed the error on the ballot on Election Day and brought it to the attention of party members and elections moderators, but he had family issues to attend to and it was not resolved, he said.
“My son wants nothing to do with politics,” he said. “It’s upsetting to him; he was never endorsed.”
He pointed out that the GOP lost control of all the boards in the election.
In the meantime, he said, he doesn’t know if he’s to be sworn in on Dec. 3, but hopes he’ll be told “so I don’t show up and they say, ‘Well you’re not being sworn in.’”
“I just want to represent the taxpayers of Derby, that’s all,” he said.
. Then i was like "wrong thread."
