On Thursday morning, Nov. 14, Brian Hughes sat in front of the Rhode Island Board of Elections and asked for a recount. 

For more than a week it appeared that Hughes, an Independent candidate and lifelong Barrington resident, had garnered enough votes to capture the third and final seat in the Barrington Town Council race. 

But at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday night, Nov. 13, Hughes learned that late-arriving ballots — military and overseas ballots — had dropped him into fourth place. Jordan Jancosek, a Democrat, jumped into the third and final seat. Just nine votes separated the two candidates: The newest tally had Jancosek receiving 4,447 votes and Hughes receiving 4,438 votes. 

The bad news continued for Hughes on Thursday morning. 

At about 9:05 a.m., Hughes received a phone call from an official with the RI Board of Elections. That official told Hughes that he would not be able to request a recount because the deadline to do so had already passed. The official also told Hughes that the RI Board of Elections was holding a meeting to discuss the recounts at 9:15 a.m. that morning. 

Hughes jumped in his truck and drove to the RI Board of Elections headquarters in Cranston. Once he arrived, Hughes listened as an attorney for the RI Board of Elections explained that only the candidate who is trailing in the results can request a recount, but that the seven-day deadline had already passed.

Hughes countered — he said he had been leading the race up until Wednesday night, which was a day after the deadline had passed. It would have been impossible for him to request a recount, he said. 

RI Board of Elections Chairwoman Jennifer Johnson said officials needed to look into rectifying the situation through legislation in the upcoming year. They called it a shortcoming in the statute.

Despite the predicament, the Board will still conduct a recount. Officials, working off Jancosek’s previous request, voted unanimously to complete a recount in the Barrington Town Council election results.

Jancosek could have withdrawn her request for the recount, but she opted to let it proceed as planned. 

That recount will be done on Friday morning, Nov. 15, at 11 a.m. — officials described the process as re-feeding all the ballots into voting equipment. 

Shortly after the meeting, Hughes voiced his frustrations with the situation. 

“It’s a glitch in the system,” Hughes said. He added that as long as officials certify the vote he will accept the outcome. “I gave it my best shot.”

The first-time candidate said he started receiving phone calls and text messages late Wednesday night, more than a week after Election Day. For the eight days prior, Hughes had checked the results and seen a narrow but constant edge over Jancosek. 

Hughes said he would have had to file the recount request on Tuesday, Nov. 12, but at that time Hughes was still in third place.  

In an email to the Barrington Times on Thursday morning, Nov. 14, DeSisto wrote: “I was told that additional military and overseas ballots came in by November 12th and I had 4 manual count ballots that were processed.”

Hughes said that for a ballot to be counted, it needed to be postmarked by Election Day. 

The Barrington Times has reached out to Jancosek.