(RoyalPatriot.com )- After a recount of votes in a Massachusetts House of Representatives race, the lead swung from Republican to Democrat by one vote, according to The Epoch Times. Democrat Kristin Kassner, a first-time candidate, was initially trailing her Republican challenger Lenny Mirra in a North Shore district that has just been redrawn.
Mirra, a five-term Republican, was leading Kassner by 10 votes of the casted 24,155, according to the original certified results. Because the 10-vote margin is within the legal threshold for a recount, Kassner asked the county for a district-wide recount.
Secretary of State Bill Galvin agreed and, after the votes were recounted, Kassner, who picked up an additional 19 votes, is up 11,763 votes to Mirra’s 11,762.
Mirra told the Boston Globe that she will challenge the results, highlighting the inconsistencies when it came to filling out the ballots.
“Some [ballots] were filled out in pencil, some were filled out with different colored ink, some had stray marks. Some had a name written in the write-in and then an oval filled out,” Mirra said.
Kassner, by contrast, applauds the process, saying that a tight race shows how important it is to wait until “the plane had landed” to be excited. She also said that she did not think anything was suspicious about the recount, but that it was a way to make sure that every vote was counted, adding that it was a “true test of democracy.”
The results have not yet been certified by Governor Charlie Baker.
Another recount was also ordered in the First Middlesex District race after Republican Andrew Shepherd requested one as Democrat Margaret Scarsdale led by 17 votes. While her lead narrowed to just 11 votes, over 4,100 ballots are remaining.
