Recounts and mail ins will determine final election outcome

One local race hangs in the balance.

By Will Collette

This is the Board of Election's timeline for
determining the final election results

Let me begin by declaring that political polls are bullshit. It has been a long time since our very expensive habit of polling to predict the outcome of elections has panned out.

I think the problems include pollsters’ inability to reach a truly representative sample given the radical shift most Americans have made to using their cellphones exclusively. Those of us who still have landlines get polled so intensively that it is tempting (at least it is to me) to just make up answers.

This year, there was supposed to be a devasting Red Wave that would sweep Republicans into control of Congress, including the election of Allan Fung. We won’t know who controls Congress for some time but we do know Fung blew his chance. 

Rhode Island Blue Tsunami

We were supposed to see big gains for the GOP in the General Assembly and perhaps several upsets among the state’s general officers. James Diossa was supposed to be in trouble in his bid for General Treasurer and the GOP thought maybe they could pull off upsets by beating Dan McKee for Governor and Sabrina Matos for Lieutenant Governor.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

The state GOP got crushed. Allan Fung is now 0 for 3 in his efforts to win an office bigger than Cranston mayor. Stick a fork in him - he's done.

The GOP did not increase its General Assembly power in part due to two Charlestown women: Tina Spears and Victoria Gu, who flipped House 36 and Senate 38 from red to Blue.

The final count will be in accordance with the Board of Election schedule posted in the upper left.

There’s one local seat that could be affected: House 39 where Democrat Megan Cotter of Exeter is four votes ahead of radical insurrectionist Trumplican Justin Price of Richmond.

Four votes.

If Megan’s lead holds, that will be another seat flipped for the Democrats. 

Filippi cliff-hanger on Block Island

Another nail-biter of some local interest is Block Island’s Town Council race. Steve Filippi, Blake “Flip” Filippi’s brother and owner of controversial Ballard’s Inn, ran unopposed as an independent for one of three open seats. Democrat Martha Bell also ran, receiving 509 votes to Filippi’s 92.

By the way, Steve Filippi was co-plaintiff with his mother suing Blake Filippi and his other brother Paul in the family feud litigation, Filippi v. Filippi.

But here’s the surprise: even though Martha Bell and Steve Filippi were the only candidates on the ballot running for 3 seats, more Block Island voters voted for write-in candidates than for Bell and Filippi combined.

The current tally is: Write-ins 1051, Martha Bell 509 and Steve Filippi 92. The Board of Canvassers will have to comb through the write-in votes, applying the state’s stringent requirement that the write-in names must be complete and accurate. Only then will Block Island know who is on their Town Council.

While Martha Bell’s win seems assured, Filippi’s does not, depending on how the review of the write-in votes turns out.