A second recount ended Tuesday night and declared Republican Rep. Larry Gagne the winner of a New Hampshire state representative seat. This comes after a Supreme Court judge ruled that a seat recount could come earlier in the day. Republican Rep. Larry Gagne won the race against Democratic challenger Maxine Mosley by 26 votes. The end results were 1824 for Gagne and 1798 for Mosley. Gagne won on election night. But in a recount last week, he lost to Mosley by a vote. “I expected that the first time,” Gagne said. “I’m glad the superior chose to continue the count, and he did, and I’m the winner.” Currently, the Republicans lead by three seats with a tie to decide. This could change again with recounts remaining for other seats. Judge Amy Ignatius ruled that the continuation of the Manchester Ward 6 seat count could go ahead on Tuesday. The recount was a long and tedious process that took several hours. New Hampshire Democrats had argued against the second recount. The recount showed the Democratic challenger won by a vote, and Democrats said state law cannot resume a recount once it is complete. But the judge said in the ruling that “the greatest weight must be given to the full and lawful counting of the votes in determining the will of the people.” The teams at the State Records and Archives building first counted the ballots and then divided them into 25- groups in. They then began voting to determine who had won the race. Mosley declined an interview after Tuesday’s recount: “She’ll look at the results and decide if there’s anything else she wants in the form of an appeal, but she worked really hard to try and win that seat,” said Minority Leader Sen. Donna Soucy, D. Secretary of State David Scanlan then noted that an audit found evidence of an administrative error in the recount, which indicated, that not all ballots were counted.Scanlan wanted to reopen the recount, a move rejected by Democrats , who said Scanlan had no legal authority to realign. The state’s Democratic Party released a statement on the ruling: “One thing is clear from this decision – Secretary Scanlan acted outside the law. From the beginning, this case was about the integrity of our elections. The courts agreed with our arguments that the Secretary of State was disobeying the statutes, exceeding his statutory powers and should not have appealed for an additional recount. “That is why we are so disappointed that the Merrimack Superior Court has found this to be an exceptional circumstance and will now allow a second recount after the Foreign Secretary declared a winner in the Manchester Ward 6 race eight days ago.” During this process, we have maintained that New Hampshire’s electoral laws do not allow anyone, be it a political party or the Secretary of State, to hold recount after recount until they achieve their desired outcome for the integrity of our elections to prevent all legal votes from being counted will be,” Gov. Chris Sununu said. “I thank Secretary Scanlan and the Court for protecting the integrity of our elections and ensuring that the voters’ voice is fully represented.” Mosley has three days to appeal to the Electoral Law Commission. It is currently unclear whether this will happen.
A second recount ended Tuesday night and declared Republican Rep. Larry Gagne the winner of a New Hampshire state representative seat. This comes after a Supreme Court judge ruled that a seat recount could come earlier in the day.
Republican Rep. Larry Gagne won the race against Democratic challenger Maxine Mosley by 26 votes. The end results were 1824 for Gagne and 1798 for Mosley.
Gagne won on election night. But in a recount last week, he lost to Mosley by a vote.
“I expected that the first time,” Gagne said. “I’m glad the supervisor chose to continue the count and he did and I’m the winner.”
Currently, the Republicans have a three-seat lead with a tie to decide. This could change again with remaining recounts for other places.
Judge Amy Ignatius ruled that the continuation of the Manchester Ward 6 seat count could go ahead on Tuesday. The recount was a long and tedious process that took several hours.
New Hampshire Democrats opposed the second recount. The recount showed the Democratic challenger won by a vote, and Democrats said under state law, once a recount is complete, it cannot be resumed.
But the judge said in the ruling that “the full and lawful count of votes to determine the will of the people must be given the greatest weight.”
Teams at the State Records and Archives building first counted the ballots and then divided them into groups of 25. Then they started taking vote after vote to see who won the race.
Mosley declined an interview after Tuesday’s recount.
“She’ll review the results and decide if she wants anything else in the form of an appeal, but she’s worked really hard to try and win that seat,” said Minority Leader Sen. Donna Soucy, D.
Secretary of State David Scanlan then noted that an audit had uncovered evidence of an administrative error in the recount, which indicated that not all ballots were counted. Scanlan wanted to reopen the recount, a move pushed back by Democrats, who said Scanlan had no legal authority to recount.
The state-run Democratic Party released a statement on the verdict:
“One thing is clear from this decision – Secretary of State Scanlan acted outside the law. From the beginning, this case was about the integrity of our elections. The courts agreed with our arguments that the Secretary of State disobeyed the statutes and exceeded his legal authority, and should not have taken the action of demanding an additional recount.
“That is why we are so disappointed that the Merrimack Superior Court finds this an exceptional circumstance and will now allow a second recount after the Foreign Secretary declared a winner in the Manchester Ward 6 race eight days ago.
“During this process, we have maintained that New Hampshire’s electoral laws do not allow anyone, be it a political party or the secretary of state, to conduct recount after recount until they have achieved the desired result.
“We will evaluate our options in the coming days, but New Hampshire Democrats will be there for the next round of recounts in the Ward 6 race, and regardless of the courts’ decision today, we will never stop fighting for the integrity of our elections.” . “
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu also released a statement on the ruling:
“In an attempt to undermine the will of Manchester Ward 6 voters, New Hampshire Democratic leaders have engaged in appalling, hypocritical and outrageous behavior to prevent all legal votes from being counted,” Gov. Chris Sununu said. “I thank Minister Scanlan and the Court for protecting the integrity of our elections and ensuring that voters’ voices are fully reflected.”
Mosley has three days to appeal to the Ballot Law Commission. It is currently unclear whether this will happen.