PINGA

PROVIDENCE — In a court-ordered recount yesterday, victories by Michael J. Pinga and Erin C. Lynch were upheld by the Board of Elections, but state Sen. Stephen D. Alves’ quest to retain his seat on Smith Hill isn’t over just yet.

After already recounting the votes from the primary elections in Warwick and West Warwick a month ago, the state Supreme Court demanded they be counted again, this time including all regular, mail and provisional ballots.

Pinga still beat Alves, the Senate Finance chairman, this time by 17 votes, and Lynch was still victorious over David Bennett, this time by 10 votes, for the seat currently held by Sen. John C. Revens, who decided after 40 years not to seek reelection.

Alves’ final count was 981 votes; Pinga’s was 998.

These totals, said Angel Taveras, the lawyer who represents Bennett and Alves, were the most accurate the board has generated in the race.

“This is the third set of numbers, and they’ve been different each time,” he said. “We’re glad they did it this way. It’s the way this should be done.

Alves has asked the state Supreme Court to order an entirely new election. His appeal is based on 18 questionable ballots that were cast in the primary election — 15 of which were cast by Republicans voting in the Democratic primary. And there were three fewer signed voter forms than there were ballots cast.

Because there are more questionable ballots than Pinga’s margin of victory, Taveras says a new election is warranted.

“Eighteen is more than 17,” he said. “The only fair thing to do is to have a revote.”

The Bennett-Lynch race is strikingly similar. As many as 19 Republicans voted in that Democratic primary and there were more ballots cast than signed voter forms. The number of questionable ballots exceeds the 10-vote margin of victory.

The decision of whether Bennett or Alves will get a chance to run in a new election will be up to the Supreme Court, which will conference on the cases Thursday. The court will consider, first, whether it will hear their appeals, and if it does, whether it will order new elections..

During yesterday’s recount, the optical scan machine used to count the votes would spit out ballots that were unreadable or improperly marked. At the end of the count, an official placed a small stack of blue ballots in the middle of a table in front of four members of the Board of Elections.

The men leaned in close. Some ballots were marked in pencil, or had partially completed arrows pointing to a candidate. Some voters tried to vote for both candidates, while others none at all.

Lawyers for the candidates crowded the table. Behind them, volunteers who’d come out to watch the recount strained their ears to hear who the board said got each vote.

Alves, an investment banker, and Bennett, a nurse, did not attend yesterday’s recount. Pinga, who sat through the recount, said he was glad the results validated his victory for a third time.

“The Board of Elections and the Supreme Court have been more than lenient in granting Senator Alves’ requests,” he said. “I hope he can accept these results and move on and stop wasting the taxpayers’ money.”

Robert Kando, executive director of the Board of Elections, said Thursday that the recounts have forced the agency to hire additional staff to prepare voting machines for the general election on Nov. 4. And the secretary of state’s office has been waiting for the final results so it can finish printing the ballots for the two races.

Taveras said that Alves will accept whatever decision the Supreme Court makes.

Lynch has already tried to move on. She’s opened a campaign headquarters in preparation for November’s election and has been campaigning.

The process yesterday lasted so long — nearly eight hours — that Lynch started playing a game on her cell phone. She waited the entire time, her phone buzzing with text messages from people who wanted to know the results.

“It has to be done,” she said. “Every vote should be heard. That’s democracy. No matter how long it takes.”

tbuford@projo.com