AUBURN — The school budget vote-counting at Auburn Hall didn’t end Monday, when a ballot recount showed the spending plan passed by 4 votes.

City officials on Tuesday counted the voter participation list from the May 8 citywide referendum. The process was watched by anti-tax activists who want the city to spend less money on schools, and by budget backers who supported more money for schools.

The voter list was counted because on Monday concerned taxpayers counted the number of names that were checked off as people came to vote. “There’s a discrepancy,” tax advocate Tim Doughty said Tuesday morning. His group counted 38 to 40 more checked-off names than ballots.

A total of 694 ballots were cast, with a vote of 348-344 (two were disputed). Taxpayer advocates counted the voter list more than once, and still got 38 to 40 more than the ballots, Doughty said.

Acting City Clerk Sue Clements-Dallaire said her staff had not counted the voter list and could not initially confirm the number. Late Tuesday afternoon, when the voter list count was completed, “it came out 693,” Clements-Dallaire said. That’s one off from the 692 votes (not counting the two disputed ballots).

“We can live with that,” she said. “We did have people from each side here.” School Committee Chairman Tom Kendall was there, as was Doughty.

Doughty agreed Tuesday that the voter list “seemed to be correct,” while “somehow it seems to be a miscount” by taxpayer advocates.

Despite that, Doughty said an inquiry ought to happen before the June 12 primary vote.

“There’s been three different numbers since this started,” he said of the ballots. “Historically, this has never happened. This is very basic stuff. We need to have a public inquiry. We need some assurances that the council and mayor are going to make systematic changes so when we vote in June, we can be assured the vote will be correct.”

Unofficial results of the May 8 vote showed a tie, 349-349, after the polls closed that night. The next morning, the official vote was 349-344, Clements-Dallaire reported. She said the tallies from the night before were inaccurate.

That prompted tax activist Ron Potvin to begin collecting petition signatures for a recount. The recount was May 21. The vote was reported by Clements-Dallaire as 348-344, with two ballots disputed.

Doughty said he wanted an explanation for what happened. People who signed the recount petition were looking for answers, he said. They included teachers, retired teachers and police officers — “even a poll person is befuddled,” Doughty said. “The citizens of Auburn have a right to inquire whether this is a valid vote.”

At-large City Councilor Belinda Gerry said she wanted to see accountability, “to try to figure how this could have happened.” There is mistrust among those who don’t want a higher school budget, she said.

“When I helped circulate petitions, people couldn’t understand how we went from a tie to a yes by 4,” Gerry said. “People on the streets say, ‘When I went to bed it was tied.’”

School Committee Chairman Kendall said he was thankful that Tuesday’s outcome favored the budget, but he was concerned about repeated efforts of those requesting the recount to dispute the outcome.

“They believed there were missing ballots, based on a personal review of the voter lists Monday, which prompted Tuesday’s inspection,” Kendall said. Inaccurate information was spread to their supporters, he said.

Doughty and others have a right to question the ballot counts, Kendall said, “but it will be most unfortunate if the public is left with the impression that those conducting the referendum and counting the ballots are not to be trusted.”

Mayor Jonathan LaBonte said people have used words such as “inquiry” and “conspiracy.” They are frustrated with taxes and school spending, “justified or not,” he said. He said he was confident in Auburn’s election staff.

Ballot counts could have been handled better, he said. New City Manager Clinton Deschene will review how everything was handled. If he finds anything amiss, he will take steps to make corrections, LaBonte said.

“I don’t believe there’s a significant breakdown in the voter process,” he said.

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