Fenton-Fung Leading Speaker Mattiello, Issue With Block of Votes Goes to Board of Elections

Fenton-Fung Leading Speaker Mattiello, Issue With Block of Votes Goes to Board of Elections

Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung is leading in her effort to topple the king of Rhode Island.

The Republican challenger against Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello in District 15 in Cranston is leading by a significant margin. 

Fenton-Fung has won 3,573 votes which equals 58.6%.

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Mattiello has won 2,501 for 41%.

"Corrupted Stick" in Question

There is a block of votes that are uncounted and ironically going before the Board of Election. 

The group of votes in Cranston still to be counted tied to a corrupted computer storage stick.

According to the spokesperson for the Board of Elections, "There were issues with one of the Cranston sticks.  Likely BOE is going to run the physical ballots again through one of their machines.  The good thing to remember is Rhode Island has physical ballots as the backup in case of a problem like this."

There will be a Board meeting on Wednesday at 10 AM on Zoom, join here: https://elections.ri.gov/calendar/meetings.php

In a race GoLocal dubbed the “nastiest battle in Rhode Island,” Mattiello — who appeared as a witness in October in the trial of former campaign aide Jeff Britt’s corruption trial — faced a fierce challenge from Fenton-Fung.

In 2018, Mattiello turned back GOP challenger Steve Frias 52% to 47% — 3,464 votes to 3,135 — after narrowly defeating Frias in 2016 by 85 votes.

It is that 2016 election that Britt is facing misdemeanor — and felony charges — stemming from the funding of a pro-Mattiello mailer tied to Frias’ GOP primary challenger, Shawna Lawton. That dispute started with the Board of Election.

Leadership Void -- The Battle Begins 

With Mattiello’s ouster, the race for Speaker is now the biggest post-election battle.

House Majority Leader Joe Shekarchi — Mattiello’s second who sits on one of the largest war chests of any politician in the state — is considered to be trying to line up the votes.

An “ABM” — Anybody But Mattiello -- movement has been brewing however even prior to the election, with second-term Representative Liana Cassar, who represents Barrington and Riverside in District 66, having formally announced her bid for Speaker on October 29.

“There is agreement from people on the inside and the outside of the House of Representatives that we need change,” said Cassar. “What does it say about us as stewards of the public trust if we continue with the status quo? I am standing up to bring together members of this chamber around a new vision, and a new way of conducting business at the State House.”