Nine.
It takes nine months for human gestation.
There are nine defensive players on the baseball field.
In the Baha’i Faith nine is considered the number of perfection and symbolizes the culmination of religious revelation.
September is the ninth month, the only month in the English language whose letter count equals the number of the month.
Dante’s Divine Comedy describes the Nine Circles of Hell.
In baseball, Major League baseball greats Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio, Ralph Kiner and Roger Maris, all wore number nine.
Hockey greats Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull wore number nine.
Basketball Hall of Famers Dwayne Wade and Bob Pettit wore nine.
And, of course, in Westerly you only need nine votes to win a seat on the town’s school committee.
Yes, just nine votes.
Seth Logan, who never declared his candidacy in the 2024 election, did garner nine write-in votes, enough to assume the vacated school committee position, according to a charter provision that offers the vacant position to the first three runners-up, sequentially.
Logan was the third runner-up, garnering nine write-in votes, edging out the likes of Jesus Christ, who was named on two ballots.
How did it happen?
Kristi Walston, who was elected to the school board in November 2024 with 5,476 votes, moved to the West Coast in February 2025. She was replaced by first runner-up Joseph Jackson, who received 4,797 votes, just ahead of his wife, Crystal. Jackson recently resigned from the board and Crystal, the second runner-up with 4,634 votes, declined the appointment.
The third runner-up was a write-in, Logan, with just nine write-in votes out of 118 write-in votes.
Logan accepted and will serve the last two and a half years of the term that was initially won by Walston. Walston, Jackson, Jackson and Logan are all Republicans. Democrats dominate the school committee.
None of this is an aspersion on Logan. If he did not accept the appointment, it would have been left to the Town Council, which is predominately Democrat, to make the appointment. The process of going three-deep was an attempt to avoid political appointments, possibly appointing someone to the committee who was not even a write-in candidate.
Here’s the charter language: “Whenever a vacancy shall occur in the membership of the School Committee by death, removal, out of town, resignation, or by neglect or refusal to qualify, or for any other cause, the right to assume the office shall be afforded sequentially by the council to the first, second or third runner-up from the preceding election. If none of the top three runners up assume the office and it is less than one year since the preceding election, a special election shall be held; or if none of the top three runners up assume the office and it is at least one year since the preceding election, the Council shall attempt to appoint a qualified person to the office.”
