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Post-election fallout

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The primary election may have been over for more than a week, but the parties in a hotly contested Washington City Council race on the Democratic ticket continue to clash, this time in a letter an attorney representing city Councilman Joe Manning sent to GOP lawyer Sean Logue, telling him to cease slandering and defaming his client.

Logue went to court over memos posted at some polling places and, at Manning’s neighborhood polling place at Calvary Temple, taped to voting machines.

Manning’s attorney, Colin Fitch, spoke Wednesday with Logue, who won an injunction on behalf of city resident Frank Zaccone to impound election materials, including a memorandum about Manning’s candidacy.

“I asked him not to make incorrect statements about the case insinuating that Joe had something to do with posting memos on polling place voting machines,” Fitch said, asking Logue to cease immediately and correct the record.

“You and your client, Mr. Zaccone, have absolutely no evidence that Mr. Manning or any of his supporters played any part in the alleged posting of (Elections Director Larry) Spahr’s memo at various polling places in the City of Washington.

“These factual insinuations are untrue and damage Mr. Manning’s reputation. They imply the existence of undisclosed facts. They certainly rise to the level of slander and defamation as they essentially accuse Mr. Manning of criminal conduct in trying to rig a write-in election.”

Fitch specifically refers to Logue’s comments during several interviews on local radio station WJPA in which he said Logue “insinuate(d) that Mr. Manning or his supporters were involved in circulating copies of Spahr’s provisional ballot memo ‘in the hundreds.’ You also insinuate in those interviews that Mr. Manning was involved in the placement of this memo at various polling places.

“There is no evidence that Mr. Manning or his supporters had anything to do with the posting.”

Logue said he was “only talking about the facts of a disputed election. It’s all baseless. All I’ve done in this entire situation is ask two questions: Where did the copies of the memos come from and how did they get into polling places, especially taped to voting machines? I haven’t mentioned Mr. Manning’s name.”

Before the election, Bernard Russell’s ballot challenge against Manning, the sole Democrat to file for two city council seats, went from Washington County Court to Commonwealth Court and back. Washington County Judge Gary Gilman ultimately ruled that Manning was one signature shy of the 100 required on his nominating petitions, so Manning conducted a write-in campaign.

Republican nominees Tracie Graham Rotunda, a newcomer, and incumbent Matt Staniszewski also were trying for Democratic write-in nominations. If they were nominated on both tickets, they would be shoe-ins in the Nov. 5 election. But a rough estimate last week of write-in votes that the canvass board will have to evaluate showed that Manning had about 334 write-ins to Rotunda’s 187. Staniszewski appeared to have fallen short in his try for a Democratic write-in nomination with 170 votes.

Spahr said Wednesday that a count of absentee ballots from city residents did not change what appears to be the outcome of the Democratic city council nominations.

“There are many more interested parties who want to ensure that the November election will be a free and fair election,” Logue said.

Asked to whom he was referring, Logue replied, “Members of the Republican Party and citizens of the City of Washington.”

The last day to file a challenge of the primary results with the court is June 10, and Logue said he and Zaccone are keeping their options open.

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