Elections board to probe Region 1 official’s words
BY RUTH EPSTEIN
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
FALLS VILLAGE — Salisbury resident Marshall Miles learned Monday that the state Elections Enforcement Commission voted to authorize an investigation of a complaint he lodged in August about a comment made by Region 1 Superintendent Patricia Chamberlain.
Shortly before the fifth referendum, Chamberlain said at an Aug. 8 school board meeting that she would give up the last year of her three-year contract and donate the 2 percent raise that went with it if the next proposal were passed.
Miles, in making the complaint, pointed to Section 9-364 of the election laws, which deals with people trying to influence votes in elections and referendums by such means as force, threat or bribery. Such actions, if found to be true, are considered felonies.
“I’m not saying she’s guilty, but it made it through the threshold,” Miles said Monday. “Her comment that she would give up the third year ‘if the budget is passed’ became to me, an inducement. The state wants to take a look. I don’t know if she was wrong or not.”
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