The battle between Somerville Alderman Salvatore R. Albano and State Rep. Vincent J. Piro over the result of their state senate race moved closer to a resolution last night as Somerville election officials began a recount of the November 6 vote totals, which favored Albano.

The Somerville count follows a Sunday night recount in Medford which showed Albano increasing his margin in the city from 5 to 221 votes over Piro (D-Somerville). Albano led Piro by 1831 votes overall in the original tally.

Somerville City Hall bristled with activity as agents of both the Albano and Piro parties peered over the shoulders of official ballot counters to challenge any decisions in the tallying.

The contention in the recount stems from possible inaccuracies in tallying due to confusion over stickers used in Albano's campaign as a write-in candidate.

Mammoth Upset

Albano led in both Somerville and Medford after the ballots were first counted in what was considered a mammoth upset over Piro, who defeated Albano in the September Democratic primary.

Bong Bang

The different result in the November vote came on the heels of Piro's highly publicized federal extortion and conspiracy trial. Piro was granted a mistrial on October 13 after he claimed that he was entrapped in an FBI sting operation.

Patricia A. Petow, chairman of he Somerville board of election commissioners, anticipated a "long, slow night" in light of numerous challenges from the Piro faction.

While the Somerville count continued into the night, Piro aides continued to question the completed Medford recount.

Irregularities

Martin B. Dropkin, co-counsel for the Piro campaign, said that "regardless of the issue of the write-in ballots", the counting of the Medford ballots had many "irregularities and inconsistencies."

"When we have a recount in a community the size of Medford, normally the change is only about 20 or 30 votes. In this particular recount, Albano gained 600 and Piro-400," he said.

Dropkin said he is concerned that some Piro votes may not have been counted and that ballots for Albano may have been counted twice as some voters placed stickers both on the ballots and the envelopes in which the ballots are placed.

He cited the questions surrounding 691 empty envelopes from Medford Ward 3, Precinct I as an example. "It creates an aura of suspicion so that we just don't know what went on."