Canvassers nix Cottrell try to become Tiverton voter

Where does he live - Tiverton or Swansea?

By Tom Killin Dalglish
Posted 9/26/16

TIVERTON — By two successive unanimous votes, the three-member Tiverton Board of Canvassers (BofC) has found that Jonathan Cottrell does not maintain a "fixed and established" domicile, at either 35 Main Road or 29 Main Road in Tiverton, for purposes of voting.

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Canvassers nix Cottrell try to become Tiverton voter

Where does he live - Tiverton or Swansea?

Posted

TIVERTON — By two successive unanimous votes, the three-member Board of Canvassers (BofC) has found that Jonathan Cottrell does not maintain a "fixed and established" domicile, at either 35 Main Road or 29 Main Road in Tiverton, for purposes of voting.
The BofC, however, did not vote or make an official determination of where Mr. Cottrell did live for voting purposes, whether in Tiverton, Swansea, or elsewhere.
The votes came after the BofC recently heard testimony on Sept. 7 from ten witnesses, including Mr. Cottrell, at a nearly four hour hearing in the Tiverton Library.
The votes do not end the matter; an appeal to the State Board of Elections (BOE) is certain, said Mr. deSisto. For that purpose a verbatim transcript was being made of the hearing that the BOE will review on the appeal.
The puzzle sought to be resolved at the hearing was, which of six homes — three in Tiverton and three in Swansea — that Mr. Cottrell owns, and sometimes resides in (or claims to) for differing periods of time, is his true domicile for voting purposes.
About 30 people attended, including four town council members (Council President Denise deMedeiros, Peter Mello, Dave Perry, and Jay Lambert).

Voting residence defined
"A person's residence for voting purposes," Town Solicitor Anthony deSisto told the BofC at the outset of the hearing, and in a memo, "is his or her fixed and established domicile," referring to state law.
That means "a person's factual physical presence in the voting district on a regular basis" with an intent "to reside for an indefinite period," Mr. deSisto said, again referencing state law on the subject.
"A person can have only one domicile," he said.
The testimony
During the hearing, Mr. Cottrell's lawyer, Tim Morgan, in rapid fire questioning, sought to establish his client's connection to 29 Main Road. He did this by asking Mr. Cottrell to respond to a list of 38 statutory criteria which, if proven to exist, establish a prima facie basis for a person's domicile at a particular address.
Residence? 29 Main Road. Drivers license? 29 Main Road. Federal and state Income tax returns for 2015? 29 Main Road. Tiverton police firearm permit? 29 Main. Where do you live? 29 Main Road, first floor. Clothes there? Yes. Meals there? Yes. And so on .
Tax bills for property outside Tiverton, insurance companies' bills, fraternal organizations? All 35 Main Road.
"Do you go to 29 Main Road, the first floor, to sleep?"
"When I go there, yes," he answered.
But Mr. Cottrell testified he'd stayed there "only a couple of times this summer," or "a few times this hot summer," and that he used it "sparingly."
All in all, Mr. Cottrell testified to personally using multiple addresses: 29 and 35 Main Road and 55 Cliff Street in Tiverton; and 1129 and 1488 Gardners Neck Road, and 89 Cedar Cove Lane in Swansea.
The owner of 55 Cliff Street (Cynthia Criollos) testified Mr. Cottrell stayed there "quite often."
[Town records currently show Mr. Cottrell as owner of seven Main Road properties at: 29-37, 35, 63, 28-30-32, 24, 20 and 27.]
The address of 35 Main Road — Mr. Cottrell's place of business — was uncontested as a commercial address. [That is the address Mr. Cottrell identified as his address in his April 28, 2015 application for an appointment to the Tiverton Planning Board, that he said he was seeking because, "I am interested in the ongoing progress in the future development of Tiverton."]
Jim O'Dell, one of the final witnesses of the evening to testify, said he had secured the volunteer assistance from Charles Mulcahey, a private investigator (and former Tiverton police detective) who lives in Tiverton, to prepare a report about Mr. Cottrell.
The report (which Mr. O'Dell said was 80 pages long) identifies Mr. Cottrell as the owner of 14 properties, mainly in Tiverton and Swansea, and a few elsewhere in the area.
Corporate documents, Mr. O'Dell said his investigator found, list 89 Cedar Cove Lane in Swansea as Mr. Cottrell's address. The utility bill of Sept. 29, 2015 from Verizon for that address was sent to Mr. Cottrell at that address, Mr. O'Dell said his investigator discovered.
The Bay Coast Bank mortgage on the 29 Main Road, Tiverton, address, Mr. O'Dell said his investigator learned, lists Mr. Cottrell as the "absentee owner."
The findings
About 35 Main Road, said Board member Paul Amaral, "no one can live there. He can't disclose it as his residence for voting purposes. Mr. Amaral made the motion, unanimously approved, for a finding that 35 Main Road is not Mr. Cottrell's domicile for voting purposes.
As for Mr. Cottrell's claim that 29 Main Road was his voting residence, "I find his testimony to be vague and evasive," said Mr. Amaral, who also made the unanimously approved motion to find 29 Main Road as not Mr. Cottrell's domicile for voting purposes.
"I find it hard to say it [29 Main Road] is fixed and established" as his domicile, he said. The testimony was "misleading and convoluted," and Mr. Cottrell "hasn't lived at 29 for at least 15 months."
The BofC findings, which could mean that Mr. Cottrell is not an "elector' in Tiverton, could disqualify him from serving as a member of town boards or commissions on which membership is limited to people who are town voters.
Mr. Cottrell has recently served as a member of the town planning board and continues to be listed on the town website (which may be outdated) as a member of the town Comprehensive Planning Advisory Committee.
The role of the BOE
As the Sept. 7 hearing began, on several occasions throughout, and again at the end, when the votes were being cast, Mr. deSisto told the BofC that whatever it decided, the outcome would be appealed to the State Board of Elections (BOE), which has continuing jurisdiction over the matter. A verbatim transcript was being made of all the testimony, he said, and would be reviewed by the BOE.
The certainty of an appeal, and a review of the official record by the BOE, will occur because last June 1, the BOE considered an appeal from an earlier Jan. 26 BofC decision about Mr. Cottrell's voting domicile, and reversed it, sending the matter back to the BofC to conduct the hearing that took place last Wednesday.
At its Jan. 26 hearing, the BofC had voted that Mr. Cottrell did not live at 35 Main Road for voting purposes.That was his business address and has no living quarters.
But the BofC, at its hearing on Jan 26, had voted 2-1 vote to let Mr. Cottrell take 29 Main Road as his voting address. 29 Main Road is a two-unit house owned by Mr. Cottrell that is divided into two apartments, one upstairs and one on the ground floor.
"The flaw in the overturned decision," Mr. deSisto said, "is that the BofC designated a voting address [29 Main Road] for Mr. Cottrell that was not supported by any facts in the record."

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