Recount confirms results in Precinct 5 TM race: Wallace reelected by two votes over Brazis for fifth seat

By Mark E. Vogler

It took about 75 minutes last Saturday for a crew assembled by the Board of Registers and the Town Clerk’s Office to confirm the slim two-vote margin of victory by Town Meeting Member Ronald M. Wallace over former Town Meeting Member Karli McConaghy Brazis for the fifth seat in Precinct 5. Both candidates hugged each other immediately after Town Clerk Ellen Schena read the results of the recount, which reflected hardly any change in the official results posted the morning after the Nov. 4 Town Election.

“The only change from the Hand count is that Pam Goodwin went from 246 to 245 and the blanks went from 1033 to 1034,” Schena said in a statement to The Saugus Advocate.

“Everyone else remains the same,” she said.

Goodwin still topped the field of eight candidates by more than three dozen votes.

“I’m very happy with the process. It seemed very fair,” Wallace said in a brief interview following the recount.

“I do not blame Karli for requesting the recount, seeing how close the vote was. I thank Ellen [Schena] and her crew and everybody for coming in on a Saturday morning to do this for us both,” Wallace said. “I also want to thank my three agents for coming in on Saturday – Precinct 2 Town Meeting Member Robert J. Camuso, Jr., former School Committee Member Ryan Fisher and Former Selectman Corinne Riley. They were there to observe the process – one at each table.”

As a result of the recount, Wallace said, he can officially begin his sixth two-year term and focus on next year’s Annual Town Meeting.

There were three tables set up at the front of the auditorium, just in front of the Board of Selectmen’s table. Each of the 2,545 votes on the ballots cast in the precinct were counted by hand, with the work distributed across the three tables. There were 1,034 blank votes cast as voters were allowed to choose up to five candidates to represent them at Town Meeting over the next two years. Each of the 10 precincts elects five Town Meeting members.

“It was a close race,” Brazis said in an interview after the recount had concluded.

“I’m happy we went through with it. Best of luck to everyone who ran in the election. If you didn’t win, you can always try again in two years,” she said.

The Official Results

Here’s how the candidates for Precinct 5 Town Meeting finished in the Nov. 4 Town Election, based on the results of last Saturday’s (Nov. 22) recount. An asterisk indicates an incumbent. The top five vote-getters will serve a two-year term (2025-27)

Candidate                              Total

*Pamela J. Goodwin               245

*Jaclyn Annette Hickman       207

*Mark Stephen Panetta          191

Lori Ann Fauci                        186

*Ronald Mark Wallace            184

Karli McConaghy Brazis         182

*Brenton H. Spencer              166

Joshua L. Dellheim                 148