New winner in Brentwood school board election

Election results in the Brentwood school district last week were incorrect due to human error, and a board candidate reported as winning actually lost, district officials said this week.

The district originally reported that challenger Helen Moss beat incumbent Lorraine Pace, 1,647 to 1,548. The district now reports Pace as the winner with 1,637 votes to Moss' 1,621.

"One school submitted a number that didn't match the number on the machine," said Rick Belyea, school district spokesman. "It was human error."

The error was discovered the following day, Belyea said, by the election official at that school, who realized more people had voted at the polling place.

Moss said at a meeting Thursday for the school board to accept the election results, blame was placed on district clerk Pauline Lalor-Cuevas for recording the same number on machines in two different schools.

Both Lalor-Cuevas and Belyea declined to comment on that.

"The bottom line is it was human error and the mistake has been rectified," Belyea said. "It's more important to move forward with the business of the school district."

Belyea added it was Lalor-Cuevas who insisted on going to Yaphank to re-canvass the machines with the Board of Elections.

Moss said she was "astounded" to find out she had lost and doesn't see how human error led to such a significant change in vote counts. Moss said Thursday that she was told she could make an appointment with the clerk to check election records. Previously, she had said she'd "pursue a criminal investigation and a revote" if the records were not made available.

The district also corrected other election night vote totals. Board president George Talley was reported to have beaten challenger Kaliah Greene by a single vote, 1,581 to 1,580. Talley's margin surged to 124 votes, 1,682 to 1,558.

The final results also add in affidavit ballots: Pace and Talley each picked up 10 affidavit votes, Greene got three and Moss two, Belyea said. Some affidavit votes were thrown out because they didn't meet requirements, he said. After the corrections the budget passed 2,170 to 1,071 and a proposition to reduce the distance the district transports students, reported to have passed 1,698 to 948, was corrected to 1,740 to 1,032.

With Jennifer Maloney