House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello emerged with a 65-vote lead over Republican rival Steven Frias after the state Board of Elections counted mail ballots Thursday, but Frias said he does not accept the results and wants an investigation of possible vote fraud in the election.
Frias and the lawyer for his campaign, state Republican Chairman Brandon Bell, arrived at the Elections Board as the ballot-counting process began at noon. By about 6 pm, the board posted results showing Mattiello with 3,582 votes and Frias with 3,517.
During voting Tuesday, Frias had a 147-vote lead over the Democratic House speaker.
After the reversal of fortune, Frias said he’s not accepting the results. He said a man who wouldn’t identify himself called him and told him some mail ballots in the race were not signed in front of a notary, as required by law. Frias said he got that call after another man, Larry Winkler, told the Providence Journal that a Mattiello supporter came to collect his mail ballot and questioned him when Winkler used it to vote for Frias.
Frias said it’s possible that fraud could be widespread in the mail ballots used in the race.
“We want to get all the answers, because this is a very important race; the most powerful politician in the state of Rhode Island,” he told reporters. “On election night, when I was ahead by 150 votes, approximately, [he] proclaimed he had 300 votes in the bank. He knew this. That’s a very bold statement to make.”
Mattiello, who was first elected as a rep in 2006, and who became speaker in 2014, released this statement: “I would like to thank the voters of District 15 in Cranston from the bottom of my heart.”
The Elections Board rejected Frias’ campaign’s request to delay the counting of mail ballots, but said it may take up his request for an investigation next week. The vote count including the mail ballots is unofficial and is expected to be certified later this month.
About an hour after the new result of the race was posted, Mattiello gathered House Democrats for closed caucus at Chapel Grille in Cranston. Rep. Joseph Shekarchi (D-Warwick) was named as the new House majority leader, succeeding John DeSimone (D-Providence), who lost his seat in a September primary.
