IMPORTANT UPDATE: Colasante Recount Shows No Change

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA 

November 15th 2024 

CRANSTON – The requested re-reading of the voting machines by losing Town Council candidate Michael Colasante has produced the same result as the vote count announced on election night: the Republican candidate, who was running for reelection to the five-member council, came in sixth behind fellow Republican, Jeffrey Dinsmore. Colasante received 1,910 votes to Dinsmore’s 1,989, a margin of 79 votes. 

The Rhode Island Board of Elections performed the re-reading on Friday afternoon. 

Colasante had requested a recount, but at a meeting on Thursday morning, citing the total number of votes, which was less than 5,000, the Board stated that Colasante would have had to be trailing by fewer than 50 votes to trigger a recount and in this case, he trailed by 79, so a re-reading would take place instead. 

In addition to a recount of the Town Council vote, Colasante had requested a recount of the Chariho School Committee vote, in which Democratic incumbents Jessica Purcell and Karen Reynolds won the two Richmond seats and Republican Louise Dinsmore came third. 

The Board disqualified Colasante’s second recount request on the grounds that Colasante was not a candidate for School Committee and therefore, did not have standing in the School Committee case. Colasante stated that his position as Chair of the Richmond Republican Town Committee gave him standing, but the Board did not concur.