The Evan MacKay campaign filed for a recount Friday for the 25th Middlesex Democratic primary that saw them 40 votes ahead of incumbent state Rep. Marjorie Decker at the end of Tuesday and 41 behind Decker after a hand count of some ballots Wednesday.
The recount will be held starting at 9 a.m. Thursday at the Russell Youth Center, 680 Huron Ave., Strawberry Hill, the Election Commission announced Monday.
“With such a close margin, voters deserve to know with certainty the exact tally, and that’s why I am requesting a recount, which we hope will be over quickly and make things clear,” MacKay said. “A cornerstone of this campaign has always been that democracy happens in the daylight.”
To get a recount, a candidate needs 10 or more signatures of registered voters from each precinct, according to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Elections Division. The Cambridge Election Commission was checking the signatures filed by the MacKay campaign, said Lesley Waxman, assistant director of the commission, on Friday. The commission will have to find a place to run a recount – the Citywide Senior Center across from City Hall is a standard location – that will probably happen during the commission’s next regular meeting.
The commission already needs to rerun the numbers from the Nov. 7 municipal election to determine officially who will replace city councillor Joan Pickett, who died Aug. 30. That will take place at 5 p.m. Sept. 19, commissioners said at their Wednesday meeting.
The chair of MacKay’s recount team, Joseph Skitka, said in a Friday press release that the results from the week’s state primary election indicate a slim margin between the candidates “such that a recount is warranted. Specifically, the margin is less than 1 percent.”
“To ensure transparency and public confidence in the election results, we request a recount to verify the accuracy of the vote count and confirm the final results,” Skitka said.
The move breaks a day of silence over the campaign’s plans after the Election Commission announced its findings. The Decker campaign had been similarly quiet, though a spokesperson told The Boston Globe that it felt a MacKay victory announcement Tuesday was premature: “We’re certainly encouraged by what the elections commission announced today but we want to give the process time to work itself out,” Jay Cincotti told the Globe on Wednesday. “MacKay’s declaration last night was irresponsible and I think it would be just as irresponsible to declare so right now. We’re not going to declare victory until this entire process is over.”
“It was an exciting race and I’m happy to report that the Cambridge Election Commission presented the final results yesterday which have me in the lead,” Decker said in a mass email. “I know many residents were confused by my opponent prematurely declaring victory before all votes were counted.”
In 2013, the commission agreed to a recount petition from city councillor Minka vanBeuzekom when challenger Nadeem Mazen was 14 transfer votes ahead, though ultimately Mazen was seated; last year a School Committee seat swapped between Richard Harding and Andrew King by a three-vote margin, then an eight-vote margin. King opted to let a deadline pass without a challenge.
This post was updated Sept. 6, 2024, with corrected information on recount needs for state elections.
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