The race for the Second Plymouth State House District — which includes all of Wareham, Carver and parts of Middleboro — has yet to be called and appears headed to a recount.
According to State House News Service and other news outlets, Democrat Sarah Hewins from Carver has a slight, 89-vote edge over incumbent Republican John Gaskey, also from Carver, though the vote has yet to be certified.
It’s been a confusing week for the district as Gaskey has reportedly declared victory twice, once on election night and once at the end of last week due to what appear to be reporting errors in the Wareham town clerk’s office.
According to the secretary of state’s office, both candidates have obtained and circulated recount petitions but no date had been scheduled for a recount as of Thursday. The deadline to submit a petition is Friday.
Hewins, in comments to CAI, says that she is waiting for the votes to be certified before she makes any announcement.
‘We all need to be patient,” Hewins said Thursday. “I’m not the kind of person to claim a victory when that hasn’t happened yet. Nothing has been certified yet.”
The confusion began after polls closed the night of midterms. The Wareham Week quoted Gaskey as declaring victory Tuesday night, but that was before Wareham’s tallies had been posted. Wareham represents a significant percentage of the district.
The race remained uncalled on Wednesday but by the end of the week, it appeared Hewins had a slight edge when Wareham was reported.
But Friday afternoon, Gaskey came out and said that he had won the race, again. His campaign said that they had gotten a new tally of votes from the Wareham town clerk that gave him a 64-vote edge.
But this week, on Monday, Gaskey published a lengthy statement on Facebook saying that the town clerk had sent him another set of vote tallies, saying that she had corrected “typos” in the unofficial results she had sent their campaign. That one gave Hewins the 89-point edge in the race.
“These figures were sent directly to both candidates by the town clerk. We relied on them when communicating with our constituents,” his statement read. “Three days later, we were told they were wrong. Calling them topographical errors does not explain how that happened, why they were not caught before the results were distributed, or how the replacement figures were verified.”
Gaskey also called for the state elections division to investigate the Wareham tally, noting that the errors have eroded the public’s trust in elections.
It’s unclear if or when the secretary of state would conduct an investigation, but a spokesperson told CAI Thursday that petitions have been circulated in Carver and Wareham for a recount, but no recount had been scheduled yet.
The Wareham town clerk has not responded to requests for comment.
