It was Sharon Uricchio's first municipal election as Clinton's town clerk. She never thought there'd be a tie.
"OK, I've read up on every scenario possible for this election, it never even crossed my mind that we'd have a tie vote for first selectman. So, just, oh God what do I do?" Uricchio said.
She called the former town clerk that had held the job for 26 years and asked her if that had ever happened before. It hadn't.
"After she was done chuckling at me, she said, 'Welcome to your first municipal election.'" Uricchio said.
Incumbent First Selectman William Fritz, a Democrat, got 1,632 votes -- the exact same number received by his Republican opponent, Bruce Farmer.
The town's registrar of voters counted the ballots four times before making the final public announcement.
"You could have heard a pin drop in the room," Uricchio said.
A mandatory recount is happening on Saturday at 9 a.m. in the town's Rose Room, and the public is invited to quietly observe. Uricchio expects the numbers to stay the same. If that happens, there will be another vote on Tuesday, Nov. 24. Absentee ballots will be available on Nov. 12.
In a sense, there are no losers in this race. The winner will become first selectman, but the other candidate will take a seat on the Board of Selectmen.
There were a few other tight races around Connecticut on Tuesday. The race for Haddam first selectman came down to 25 votes. The margin in the Windham Town Council race was only 15 votes. But so far Clinton's results are the closest.
Candidates can petition for recounts if the votes are close enough, or if they have reason to believe something went wrong during the count, according to state statute.
