With all certified results in, the state has scheduled a district-wide recount to take place Wednesday and Thursday in the Democratic primary race between incumbent Sen. William Brownsberger and challenger Daniel Lander.
The two are running to represent the Suffolk and Middlesex District, which covers Belmont, Watertown, and parts of Boston and Cambridge, in the Massachusetts Senate. The winner will move to the general election in November, where he will face no Republican opponent.
Since the election on Tuesday, Sept. 1, the margin remained razor thin as the four municipalities continued to count ballots, with the lead changing hands at various points. On Friday, both Brownsberger and Lander filed petitions for recount with the Secretary of State.
According to certified results sent by the Secretary of State’s office on Sunday, Brownsberger holds a lead of 12,291-12,257, a difference of 34 votes.
In Belmont, the Belmont Board of Registrars of Voters will meet Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. in the auditorium of the Belmont Town Hall to go over procedures, vote to appoint the assistant registrars, administer the oath to recount workers and assistant registrars (if appointed), and to count and block ballots into stacks of 50. According to an email from Town Clerk Ellen O’Brien Cushman, when the blocking is complete, the recount will be in recess until Thursday morning, when it will resume at 9 a.m.
According to a notice sent to the campaigns, both parts of the recount are open to members of the public, who can observe from behind barriers.
Ballots will be counted by hand. According to the Secretary of State, “There should be two clerks on each team, facing each other across the table, one reading the ballot and one marking the tally sheet. An agent for each candidate may stand behind each clerk to watch and may keep a tally, or make notes.”
According to Cushman, Belmont will have 20 teams of two, one counting, the other tallying the vote. There will be one tally clerk and four to six runners.
The state also issued an order for a district-wide recount in the Democratic primary for the 9th Bristol Representative District, which includes Dartmouth and part of one ward of New Bedford.
