MacRae, Muratore Race Recount Headed For Recount; Votes Will Be Counted Wednesday, Thursday On The Upper Cape
MacRae, Muratore Race Recount Headed For Recount
Votes Will Be Counted Wednesday, Thursday On The Upper Cape
By CALLI REMILLARD AND JAMIE PERKINS
The race between Republican state Senate hopefuls Kari D. MacRae of Bourne and Mathew J. Muratore of Plymouth is headed for a recount.
The final results of Tuesday’s primary election had yet to be finalized and Ms. MacRae, who trails Mr. Muratore by a margin of just 48 votes, has been collecting signatures to petition for a district-wide recount. In an email received shortly after 3 PM on Friday, September 6, Falmouth Town Clerk Michael Palmer stated that the vote recount will take place at Falmouth Public Library next Thursday, September 12, at 8 AM, per the Board of Registrars.
Latest vote counts, reported at 9:56 AM on Wednesday by the Associated Press, place Mr. Muratore slightly ahead of his competitor Ms. MacRae, with 6,983 and 6,935 votes, respectively. This splits the vote, with 50.2 percent of Republican ballot casters choosing Mr. Muratore, and 49.8 siding with Ms. MacRae, with an estimated 99 percent of precincts reporting.
How We Got Here
Shortly before noon on Wednesday, the Enterprise received a statement from the Muratore For Senate Committee with the headline “Muratore Declares Victory in Plymouth & Barnstable State Senate Primary.” The release included a statement from Mr. Muratore, a current state representative, and said that the statement was predicated on the “preliminary vote counts from all 8 communities of the Plymouth and Barnstable Senate District.”
“While the final handful of votes remain to be counted, we are confident in our lead, and—most importantly—we are grateful to the voters that put their trust in our campaign,” the statement read.
Ms. MacRae also released a statement on Wednesday announcing her intention to call for a district-wide recount in the state senate primary race. In her statement, Ms. MacRae alleged that “at about midnight, I enjoyed a 581-vote lead on Rep. Muratore.”
“Then Plymouth weighed in—Rep. Muratore’s hometown,” Ms. MacRae’s statement reads, adding that the Plymouth town clerk informed her of about 1,800 early and mail-in ballots that had yet to be tabulated.
“Vote counting in the middle of the night in my opponent’s hometown,” the senate hopeful wrote. “I had a 581-vote lead. What could go wrong, right?”
Ms. MacRae’s statement further stated that she was “deeply disturbed by the substantial irregularities in the Plymouth vote-counting efforts.”
A Bourne resident, Ms. MacRae won the primary in her hometown by a solid margin of more than 500 votes. She held similar margins across Falmouth, Sandwich and Bourne.
Where We Are Now
An additional post on the Facebook page for the Committee to Elect Kari MacRae, shared yesterday morning, September 5, announced that Ms. MacRae would be at the Sagamore Market Basket collecting signatures to petition for a vote recount from 3 PM to 6 PM.
“In the words of Yogi Berra, ‘it ain’t over ‘til it’s over’—and this state senate primary isn’t over!” Ms. MacRae’s Wednesday statement read. “On to the recount!”
When reached by the Enterprise for comment yesterday afternoon, Ms. MacRae re-emphasized her intention to get the required signatures to file for a recount. She cited “gross situations” in Plymouth on primary election day.
“Questionable things that were happening in Plymouth on the night of the election…they had some calculation errors and software errors. So that kind of made us a little bit concerned, and we just want to make sure that the final count is the correct count,” said Ms. MacRae.
She noted that Mr. Muratore leads by only 48 points.
“I think it’s very important for the constituency and the people that supported me as well as Matt to make sure that at the end of the day, the results are satisfied, especially with such a short difference,” she concluded.
Where We Go From Here
When reached midday on Thursday, Mr. Muratore declined to comment further on the situation beyond his aforementioned statement, only offering that his team is now focusing on the November general election.
Ms. MacRae live-streamed on Facebook at 1:07 PM providing her most recent update to her constituency.
“There were some discrepancies in the Town of Plymouth,” she stated, “Which my Republican opponent also agrees with and validates—that there was some concern.”
When asked to comment on Ms. MacRae’s statement, Mr. Muratore clarified his opinion, telling the Enterprise that he acknowledged that it took a while for the results to get in, but adding that he is “not concerned” about the total vote count being inaccurate, emphasizing his confidence in the precision of the voting machines.
According to the Election Recounts handbook published by the Elections Division of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, petitions for district- or state-wide recounts of state primaries must be submitted to local registrars of voters no later than 5 PM on the third day following the primary election—which would be today, Friday, September 6. The petitions, the handbook states, must then be submitted to the Secretary of the Commonwealth no later than 5 PM on the seventh day following the primary. In terms of numbers, the handbook states that a district-wide recount petition must be signed by one-fourth of the number of voter signatures required to qualify a candidate for the ballot for that office. Another handbook from the secretary's office, titled "How To Run For Office In Massachusetts," states that candidates for state senator are required to submit at least 300 certified signatures to be on the ballot.
Ms. MacRae spent a few hours on Thursday afternoon and evening at the Market Basket in Sagamore, gathering signatures from constituents to petition for a recount. In another Facebook livestream, shared from outside the Market Basket, Ms. MacRae said that she hopes to gather 120 signatures—more than the required 75 to file the petition—and submit them Friday, September 6, in accordance with state requirements.
The Enterprise reached out to Ms. MacRae for additional comment on Friday, but did not receive a response as of this writing.
Public Recount This Week
Falmouth's recount for the senate primary race will take place Thursday, September 12, in the Herman Meeting Room at the Main Branch of the Falmouth Public Library. Town Clerk Michael Mr. Palmer said the Board of Registrars will meet at 8 AM at Town Hall to “transport the ballots and election information” to the Herman Meeting Room.
Around 9 AM, poll workers and “agents” of the candidates will receive instructions and proceed to count each ballot.
Sandwich will conduct its recount on Wednesday, September 11 at Old Town Hall beginning at 9 AM.
Prior to the board of registrars meeting, a select board meeting will be held at 8:30 AM to appoint a temporary registrar for the primary election recount.
Town manager George (Bud) H. Dunham explained that the select board is appointing a temporary registrar because one of the town’s registrars is out of the country on vacation and will not be present for the recount.
Town clerk Taylor White said that the last recount was during the May 2016 local election regarding the question on the construction of the public safety complex.
Mr. White said that seven teams of ballot readers will separate the votes in 33 blocks of 50. He explained that markings on the ballots could cause the machine to read a filled in ballot as blank.
For example, if someone accidentally filled in both boxes but circled the one that they chose to vote for, the machine would read the ballot as blank.
He said that he does not expect the recount to take more than an hour.
All of the recounts will be open to the public.
Mashpee's recount will take place on Friday, September 13 at 10 AM at Mashpee Town Hall's Waquoit Meeting Room, according to Town Clerk Deborah Kaye.
Bourne's recount will take place on Thursday, September 12 at 10 AM in the downstairs meeting room at Bourne Town Hall, according to a meeting notice posted on the town website.
Off Cape, the recount is scheduled for Thursday, 10 AM in Kingston; Thursday, 4 PM in Plympton; Saturday, 8 AM in Pembroke; and Wednesday, 9 AM in Plymouth