Oak Bluffs Election Declared Illegal

The May 26 Oak Bluffs special election in which voters overwhelmingly rejected two spending overrides has been declared illegal. The move comes after Town Clerk Deborah Ratcliff before the vote tally that town officials failed to follow proper notification procedures. Ratcliff said she had not received a signed copy of the warrant certifying that the election had been posted seven days in advance.

In an email to the Vineyard Gazette, the first to break the news, town administrator Michael Dutton said he mistakenly assumed that posting the selectmen’s warrant, which contained the date of the election, satisfied the legal requirements. “Evidently there is some confusion over who is responsible for posting. Since it’s a selectmen’s warrant, I take full responsibility for the error,” Dutton wrote to the Gazette. 

Both Dutton and Ratcliff were out of the office on Wednesday, and could not be reached for comment.

Five hundred and fifty-nine voters turned out for the election last week, in which two Proposition 2.5 spending override questions were soundly defeated. The overrides would have raised property and real estate taxes in order to .

A call to assess $230,000 to reinstate paving and road maintenance was defeated 376 to 182. A second question, asking voters to assess $254,361 to fund a variety of department expenses, was defeated 387 to 170.