Jesse Lunin-Pack has conceded the election for a seat on the Lawrence School Board to Tova Plaut after two recounts last week confirmed her 37-vote advantage.
A source close to the election said the final count was 1647 to 1610. The 37 vote margin was the same number reported last week. Dov Herman, the Community Coalition of the Five Towns’ candidate, received 840 votes.
Lunin-Pack, of Atlantic Beach, told Patch that he called Plaut to congratulate her on winning the election.
“After an exhaustive process over the past week, I can tell you that my team and I have found nothing that leads us to believe that this change in vote count was anything more than a human error by one of the election clerks last Tuesday night,” Lunin-Pack wrote on Facebook.
Lunin-Pack last Tuesday had a few hundred-vote advantage over Plaut. This was caused by an error where the third digit of the number of votes for Plaut from two machines was dropped. The district announced that night that a recount was necessary.
“While I understand what the mistake was, I do not understand how it was allowed to happen," Lunin-Pack said. "The Lawrence community must have the utmost confidence in the integrity of elections. I call upon the board to investigate this thoroughly, and to report back to the community what went wrong, and the steps put in place to make sure this can never happen again. I look forward to helping with that process in any way I can.”
Lunin-Pack said he plans to speak at Thursday’s special board meeting at 9 p.m. in the high school, where the results will be officially announced.
Plaut could not be reached for comment.
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