Thank you to everyone who made the 2023 recount respectful and successful.

The recount of the 2023 election for City Council was completed on Saturday, December 9th, 2023. I want to thank all of the volunteers, lawyers, recount workers, city staff, election commissioners, and candidates for creating a professional and respectful environment to conduct the recount.

Election Commission Chair Henry Milorin announced that updated unofficial results of the full election will be released Monday 12/11, and the Election Commission will vote to certify them as official results on Wednesday, 12/13 at their public meeting.

The recount ended up being a “partial recount.” Because of how ballots were counted this year, each of Medford’s 16 precincts had two results—one from the voting machine at the Election Day polling place and one from the early and mail ballots counted centrally at City Hall—for a total of 32 tabulated results across the city. At the recount, 4 of those results were hand counted and 4 were counted by a tabulation machine. Additionally, several candidates and the lawyer for the petitioning candidates reviewed the tallies for hand counted ballots and provisional ballots. After that was completed, the petitioning candidates decided not to continue with further counting. 

The final “official results” for City Council will include the 8 recounted results, the 24 results counted on Election Day, and any hand counted ballots and provisional ballots.

While we now have a final result, there is significant work to do to determine where errors were made in this election, get answers to unanswered questions, and ensure that future elections in Medford do not have these same problems. I am hopeful that the Election Commission, City Council, and Mayor can work together to create a public report detailing procedural errors, who was responsible, what additional staffing or other resources are needed, and to have clear accountability and solutions-focused action to make sure Medford voters and residents remain confident in the city’s electoral process. 

Once again, thank you to everyone involved for your commitment to Medford and to democracy, which we must continue to vigilantly protect and deeply cherish.

Sincerely yours,
Zac Bears
Vice President
Medford City Council