After a nine-hour recount Thursday, there was no change in State Rep. Marjorie Decker’s 41-vote lead over challenger Evan MacKay in the Democratic primary for her seat representing the 25th Middlesex District.
Election commissioners in Cambridge certified the tally around 6 p.m., with Decker having 3,471 votes to MacKay’s 3,430.
The six-term incumbent thanked her supporters after spending hours quietly watching the recount proceedings.
“I just want to say to all of you how grateful I am for your confidence in me, in your confidence in the work that we do together,” she said. “I’m excited to continue serving our community. I cannot wait to get back to working on the issues that we care about.”
Decker declined to answer questions from reporters.
MacKay, who petitioned for the recount after prematurely declaring victory on election night, conceded in a statement that thanked Decker for her public service.
Recount volunteers started reviewing the last and largest precinct at about 4:15pm. That’s also about the time MacKay’s camp requested to review the empty election envelopes that ballots were collected from on election night.
Throughout the day, about 60 volunteers and observes from the media and the public packed into the Russell Youth Center’s second floor room as representatives from each campaign flitted between recount team tables, peering over shoulders to peek at ballots for potential challenges.
Tom Stohlman, a member of the Cambridge election commission, said he was pleased with the staff’s handling of the recount and that the results essentially mirrored those from election night.
“We can do this count 10 times, we can do it 100 times and what we hope to see is that the results are very close every time we do it,” he said. “Humans are frail, we make mistakes and to have the winning margin actually the same is fantastic.”
The November ballot will not have a Republican nominee for the 25th Middlesex District seat, making it all but certain that Decker will be elected to a seventh term.
Cambridge City officials were not immediately available to answer how much the effort cost taxpayers.
