Mermell Won't Rule Out Recount In Close MA-4 Race

FRANKLIN, MA — Results in the 4th Congressional District race began changing Thursday morning hours after a Suffolk Superior Court judge ruled that votes could continue to be counted in the closest race of Tuesday's primary.

As of 10 a.m. Thursday, Newton City Councilor Jake Auchincloss was leading Jesse Mermell by 1,377 votes, a slightly narrower lead compared to Wednesday afternoon. Auchincloss' lead was above the threshold for a recount.

Mermell is not ready to rule out a recount. She held a news conference at Newton City Hall Thursday and when asked about a recount, she would only say that every vote needs to be tallied.

"No one wants a recount, particularly in the middle of a pandemic when we all want to be focused on the task of getting rid of Donald Trump in November," she said.

The vote count in the race for U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy's seat was called into question late Wednesday when Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin asked the courts to intervene. About 1,500 votes from Newton, Wellesley and Franklin were uncounted, and town clerks were technically barred from tallying them after Election Day. The uncounted ballots were a mix of overseas mailings and ballots left in drop boxes.

A judge's order Wednesday will allow those three communities to begin counting again, which may mean the end is in sight for the race. The 4th District count was the one glaring issue in the Tuesday primary, an unprecedented election where a record-breaking 1.5 million voters cast ballots, mostly by mail.

Mermell on Thursday said there may be more uncounted votes across the 4th District outside the ones highlighted in Newton, Wellesley and Franklin. Her campaign contacted Galvin's office about that, she said.

A reporter asked Mermell at what point she would acknowledge the race was over.

"We're just waiting for every vote to be counted," she said.

The race began with nine candidates vying for Kennedy's seat after the four-term Congressman launched an unsuccessful bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Ed Markey.

Following Auchincloss and Mermell, Newton City Councilor Becky Grossman was in third place with about 18 percent of the vote. Nonprofit director Natalia Linos and progressive Ihssane Leckey were trailing in fourth and fifth place, respectively.

All except Mermell and Auchincloss had dropped out by Thursday evening.

The 4th District contest has drawn comparisons to the 2018 Democratic primary in the Boston-area 3rd Congressional District. U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan beat former Marty Walsh aide Daniel Koh by 145 votes that year in a 10-way primary for the seat once held by Paul Tsongas.