Alves

PROVIDENCE — The state Supreme Court will not order a new Democratic primary election for an open Warwick Senate seat, but reserved decision yesterday on what to do about an identical request for a rerun of the Democratic primary in West Warwick that ousted Sen. Stephen D. Alves.

The court will not take up the Alves appeal until Oct. 23, less than two weeks before the November election. The judges, who conferred privately, offered no hints about why they continued Alves’ case and declined to hear the appeal in the other.

“There is nothing we can do right now other than to wait and see what the ultimate decision of the court will be,” said Angel Taveras, Alves’ lawyer.

By refusing to hear the appeal of candidate David Bennett, the court let stand a state Board of Elections decision that had affirmed the primary election of Erin C. Lynch as the Democratic candidate in Warwick’s senatorial District 31. She will face Republican challenger Thomas Madden in November.

The Alves and Bennett appeals were consolidated because both cited similar election count discrepancies, both sought new elections, and both cases referred to the same election laws.

Alves, a longtime incumbent and powerful Finance Committee chairman, lost the primary election by 17 votes to Michael J. Pinga, political newcomer. Citing 18 questionable ballots, 10 of them cast by registered Republicans, Alves called for recounts, and also appealed to the state’s highest court for a new election.

In Warwick, David Bennett lost to Lynch by 10 votes. Subsequent recounts eventually affirmed the Lynch victory. Bennett, noting that there were 31 more ballots cast than signatures of voters in that district, also called for a primary rerun. He also cited data from the Warwick Board of Canvassers showing that as many as 19 Republicans voted in that Democratic primary.

“I’m pretty disgusted,” Bennett said yesterday, shortly after hearing the decision. “I have no choice but to accept the Supreme Court’s decision. I think my case stands out much stronger than Alves’. … It’s discouraging.”

Meanwhile, Pinga, who has claimed victory ever since election night, called the court’s decision “unbelievable.”

“I won the election, I won the recount, I won the board hearing. I won the recount of the recount,” he said. “This is a travesty of justice.”

Lynch, meanwhile, said she was “breathing a little easier” after hearing the news that her victory would stand.

But only a little

“It’s over,” Lynch said. “Well, this part’s over. I still have a little less than four weeks to the general election. … I still have a whole race to go. This was just halftime. I still have the whole second half.”

Without a Republican challenger in November, Pinga hopes to assume Alves’ seat in the General Assembly in January.

But, he said yesterday, he still has his campaign signs up throughout West Warwick in case a new election is ordered. The delay is posing problems for the secretary of state’s office, which began printing ballots for the November election last month. “We have to sit down with legal counsel and decide what direction we’ll be heading,” Chris Barnett, communications director for the secretary of state, said. “That will happen very soon.”

Barnett said the state is not printing multiple versions of the West Warwick ballot to account for whatever the Supreme Court may do, but didn’t dismiss the notion completely.

“There are no plans to print three ballots, but we’re not closing the door to any option if it is in the best interest of voters in West Warwick,” he said.

Meanwhile, the state police are beginning to look into a complaint from the state Democratic Party chairman involving the registered Republicans who should not have been allowed to vote in the Democratic primary. Police said earlier this week that they were reviewing the complaint, but have not launched a formal investigation. Residents said detectives were knocking on doors at Msgr. Deangelis Manor in West Warwick last night, asking selected residents if they’d voted in the September primary.

tbuford@projo.com